The Department of Housing and Urban Development will review its current lender-certification process and defect taxonomy to address industry concerns about costly penalties and settlements arising out of False Claims Act lawsuits. In remarks at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual convention in Denver this week, HUD Secretary Ben Carson said the review would benefit greatly from feedback by lenders and other stakeholders in response to President Trump’s directive to all federal agencies to eliminate burdensome and duplicative regulations. Carson said HUD’s immediate concern is bringing back lenders that have exited the FHA single-family program or limited participation because of the undue risks they face from FCA enforcement. Lenders need clarity in what HUD expects from them in terms of lending and reduced exposure to outsized liability from immaterial errors, the ...

Brian Montgomery, President Trump’s nominee for assistant secretary for housing and FHA commissioner, reiterated his commitment to fight fraud and misrepresentation in FHA lending but wondered whether the Department of Justice had gone too far in using the False Claims Act as an enforcement tool against lenders. Testifying during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Montgomery expressed concern whether the DOJ and the Department of Housing and Urban Development had been adversarial towards lenders in their efforts to stem taxpayer losses and protect the FHA insurance fund. In prepared testimony, the nominee said the government must do better in providing clarity to encourage lenders to make FHA-insured loans and entice those that have exited for fear of exposure and liability to return to the ...

A Ginnie Mae/VA anti-churning task force is looking at a number of options to solve the rapid prepayment problem, which could include extending the seasoning requirement for all refinanced loans and prohibiting access to custom pools. A Ginnie representative declined to provide further details, adding that the task force is not ready to announce changes yet. “But we will take additional action soon, which we can do through program changes like we did last year,” he said. Ginnie issued guidance last year to curb aggressive refinancing of VA loans that underlie Ginnie mortgage-backed securities. The rapid refis have resulted in rapid prepayments to the detriment of investors with no clear benefits to VA borrowers. The guidance required six consecutive monthly payments before delivering a streamlined refi loan into a standard Ginnie MBS. The measure succeeded in stopping the ...

Overall denial rates for nonconventional loan applications (FHA, VA and Rural Housing Service) fell slightly in 2016 to 13.4 percent from 13.9 percent in 2015, Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data showed. In the nonconventional refinancing segment, denial rates rose to 32.9 percent last year from 30.3 percent in the previous year. Approximately 23.9 percent of FHA loan applicants were denied last year while VA turned down 20.0 percent of borrowers who sought a VA loan. An estimated 14.3 percent of FHA purchase-loan applicants were turned down. VA denied 11.4 percent of its purchase-mortgage applicants although its total purchase-loan applications are far fewer compared to FHA. According to the Federal Reserve’s overview of the 2016 HMDA data, as in past years, blacks, Hispanics and “other minority” borrowers had notably higher denial rates overall compared to white borrowers. Denial rates for ...

Legislation was introduced this week to repeal the FHA’s life-of-loan requirement and reinstate a previous policy of requiring borrowers to pay premiums until the outstanding principal balance reaches 78 percent of the original home value. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, introduced the Making FHA More Affordable Act so that families would not have to keep paying mortgage insurance premiums for the life of their FHA-insured loan. Up until June 3, 2013, FHA was aligned with the private mortgage insurance industry in charging premiums only until the outstanding principal balance reached 78 percent of the original home value. The FHA first announced its intention to require life-of-loan premium payments in January 2013, allowing the agency to collect more premium revenue to bolster its ailing Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. FHA’s life-of-loan policy ...

JPMorgan Chase exhorted the CFPB to address some fundamental flaws in the integrated disclosure rule under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act – namely, an insufficient capability for lenders to “cure” the inevitable errors that occur and the significant legal liability lenders and assignees face. As the lender spelled out in its public comments to the CFPB regarding its proposed solution to the TRID “black hole” (see following story), these are two significant hurdles that are keeping private capital from returning in full force to the mortgage market. Chase urged the bureau to address a number of unresolved concerns the industry has brought up since the rule was adopted, in order to foster stability and ...

Leading trade groups that represent various segments of the mortgage and real estate industry generally support the changes the CFPB recently proposed to close the so-called black hole it inadvertently created when it drafted the integrated disclosure rule under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. “The proposal recognizes that unexpected events occur regularly and cause closings to be delayed. Those delays should not prevent closings or increase costs for other consumers who are able to close on time,” the Mortgage Bankers Association said. “Amending the integrated-disclosure requirements to address the black hole will resolve these issues, and the remaining limitations on when tolerances may be reset will afford sufficient protections for consumers.” Other industry ...

The House Financial Services Committee recently passed a handful of mortgage-related bills, including H.R. 2954, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Adjustment Act, introduced in June by Rep. Tom Emmer, R-MN. His measure would exempt all but the top 10 percent of mortgage lenders from some pending data collection and reporting requirements under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, according to an analysis by Inside the CFPB. Starting with 2017 data (to be submitted to the CFPB in early 2018), the volume threshold for HMDA respondents is a minimum of 25 originated mortgage loans in each of the last two years (i.e., 25 loans in 2015 and 25 loans in 2016). This volume threshold only applies to depositories in 2017, then applies to ...

In a development likely to further fuel speculation that his boss is on his way out the door, Anthony Alexis, the head of enforcement at the CFPB, will leave the agency for parts unknown after more than five years at the bureau. The exact date of his departure is to be determined, as he plans to remain until his successor is chosen. No official announcement was made, but a bureau official confirmed the news.CFPB Director Richard Cordray noted: “As our chief of enforcement, Tony has been my strong right arm, just as he was to Kent Markus who preceded him in that role. Together, they have earned the respect and admiration of many – including me – for their fierce integrity ...

Ocwen Financial revealed last week that it has settled with four more jurisdictions – Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Tennessee and Texas – resolving regulatory actions brought against the nonbank over some of its mortgage lending and servicing practices, as well as financial reporting issues. That brings to 21 the number of jurisdictions the firm has made peace with. “We continue to work cooperatively with the remaining 10 state regulatory agencies and two state attorneys general to reach acceptable resolutions,” spokesman John Lovallo said. Terms of the settlements with Arkansas, DC and Texas are virtually identical to those previously announced and reported by Inside the CFPB. One of the most significant provisions is that Ocwen will not acquire any new mortgage servicing ...