Final PMIERS Rule Expected in 1Q15. The Federal Housing Finance Agency has revised its timeline for publishing a final version of the Private Mortgage Insurance Eligibility Requirements, which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac proposed in July at the direction of the FHFA. The PMIERS will establish capital and other requirements for private mortgage insurers. In a statement, industry trade group U.S. Mortgage Insurers said it has received word from the agency that the final PMIERS would not be published until at least late in the first quarter of 2015. The FHFA initially indicated that a final rule would be issued by yearend 2014. The USMI reiterated its support for an updated PMIERS. Mortgage Executives Concerned About G-Fee Increase. A survey of mortgage executives at this year’s Mortgage Bankers Association annual conference found 53 percent saying that ...

FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund ended fiscal 2014 in the black but was still far short of its statutory reserve requirement, prompting critics in Congress to renew their cries for FHA reform. An independent actuarial report sent to Congress this week showed that the MMI Fund now stands at $4.8 billion after a gain of nearly $6 billion over the last year. For the first time since 2009, the fund’s capital ratio also crossed into positive territory at 0.41 percent, up 52 basis points from the negative 0.11 percent posted in fiscal 2013. Overall, the economic value of the fund has risen by $21 billion over the last two years because of the aggressive steps the agency took to stabilize and strengthen the fund, the report said. Policy changes led to improved underwriting for single-family mortgages, increased mortgage insurance premiums, stronger loss mitigation policies and higher recoveries, it added. In addition, with ...

The economic value of the FHA’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage legacy portfolio fell to negative $0.9 billion in fiscal 2014 due mainly to volatility in long-term house prices and interest rates, according to the latest independent actuarial report on the health of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. The latest result was a significant improvement from FY 2012, when the fund stood at negative $2.8 billion. In fiscal 2013, the HECM portfolio’s economic value of positive $6.5 billion appeared to be a whopping change from the previous year but that amount reflected a $4.6 billion cash infusion from the forward program and from the $1.7 billion mandatory appropriation, the report clarified. The report also showed a corresponding decline in the HECM capital ratio to negative 1.20 percent. Actuarial projections for fiscal 2015 place the HECM portfolio’s economic value at negative $1.1 billion. The fund’s capital resources for ...

Wells Fargo and the Department of Justice are reportedly at an impasse in their settlement talks in connection with a lawsuit accusing the bank of improper underwriting and false certification of certain FHA-insured loans. In an e-mailed statement to Inside FHA Lending, a bank spokesperson said Wells Fargo’s good faith effort to work with the federal government to resolve the complaint “has not yet resulted in a settlement.” Nonetheless, the bank “will move forward with presenting [its] case in support of [its] prudent and responsible FHA lending practices, which have produced high-quality FHA loans with delinquency rates that are half the industry average,” the spokesperson added. This week, citing an unidentified source, Bloomberg reported that lawyers for the government and the bank have told the presiding judge in the case that they ...

Thousands of military veterans in high-cost areas may be deprived of VA’s home-loan guarantee benefits unless Congress extends the current VA loan limits before the end of the year. Those loan limits expire on Dec. 31, 2014. The VA loan limits are based on median home values estimated by the FHA, providing loans up to 125 percent of local area median price. The program does not set a cap on how much a veteran can borrow to finance a home purchase but it does limit the maximum amount it can guarantee to 25 percent of the current loan limit. Veteran and industry groups are urging Congress to make the VA limits permanent. A VA spokesperson said the agency was not asked for a position on the issue since Congress did not put forward any bill in any of the hearings this year. “But as a general rule, VA wants to maximize the opportunities ...

Ginnie Mae is seeking comment on several proposed data collections, including those that would strengthen the agency’s ability to monitor participants in its mortgage-backed securities programs. Due to its growing concern over the influx of non-depository issuers into the single-family MBS program, Ginnie has proposed to collect more loan-level data to supplement the information already being collected and reported on a monthly basis. The proposed data collection consists of bankruptcy-related information (action type, case identifier, chapter type, bar date) as well as borrower-related information (borrower bankruptcy indicator, classification type, total mortgaged properties, counseling initiated indicator and credit score date). Other proposed new data include document custodian ID, type of insurance claim coverage, investor unpaid principal balance (UPB), adjustment to ...

CFPB examiners have identified a number of unfair or deceptive acts or practices on the part of an unspecified number of bank and nonbank servicers of federal and private student loans, according to the latest supervisory highlights report released recently by the bureau. One problematic practice involved “one or more supervised entities” allocating partial payments in a way that maximizes late fees. CFPB examiners have reviewed how servicers allocate payments when a borrower pays less than the total amount due on all of the loans in the borrower’s account, according to the report. “Examiners found that partial payments were being allocated proportionally ... among all the loans, resulting in all of the loans in a borrower’s account becoming delinquent,” said ...

In the first half of 2014, CFPB examiners conducted targeted reviews for compliance with the bureau’s new mortgage servicing rules and found mixed results, according to the agency’s latest supervisory highlight report. For example, the new rules require servicers to maintain policies and procedures to achieve specific objectives in areas such as loss mitigation, servicing transfers and service provider oversight. “In reviewing this area, examiners found that the policies and procedures at several servicers appeared to be reasonably designed to meet the specific objectives laid out in the rule,” said the new report. For instance, some servicers’ policies and procedures clearly outlined the ways in which they access and provide timely and accurate information. “These policies and procedures included specific ...

There are a host of legal land mines that mortgage lenders must avoid if they want to keep from becoming the target of a CFPB enforcement action under its unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices (UDAAP) authority, according to top legal experts. Andrea Mitchell, a partner with the BuckleySandler law firm, told attendees at an Inside Mortgage Finance webinar last week that there are a number of representations lenders should stay away from in their marketing pitches. “Say what you mean and mean what you say,” Mitchell said. She then rattled off a list of potentially problematic terms to avoid, such as “free” or “no cost,” “best rates available,” “fastest” or “faster than…,” “improve/repair your credit” or “eliminate your ...

Last month, the long-running dispute between the CFPB and Morgan Drexen, a debt settlement firm, took another turn – this time with the bureau filing a motion for summary judgment in which it seeks an injunction permanently barring the firm and its owner and CEO, Walter Ledda, from providing debt relief services in the future. The bureau also is pushing for $90.7 million from the defendants in restitution, as well as a civil money penalty in an unspecified amount. The CFPB said it brought this action to stop a nationwide debt settlement “scheme that preys on financially distressed consumers who are in debt.”Defendants Morgan Drexen and Ledda and the attorneys with whom they are affiliated promise consumers that they will ...