The Department of Veterans Affairs has made recommendations to VA lenders and borrowers calling in with questions and problems at VA regional centers to avoid long wait times and have their concerns resolved as quickly as possible. In a recent memo to lenders, the VA Loan Guaranty Service is reporting that many of its regional loan centers (RLC) are being swamped with calls due to record increases in VA originations in recent months. While this suggests that more veterans are using their housing loan benefit than ever before, the large volume of calls to VA has caused long hold times for callers and delayed processing of borrower certificates of eligibility (COE). To cut down on the waiting time, the VA urged lenders and borrowers to consider several things before making the call. First, do not call to check on the status of a COE request if there is no urgent need, like an ...

VA Home Loan Guaranty has issued clarification regarding title requirements for manufactured or mobile homes conveyed to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Effective immediately, VA is requiring proof of noteholders’ compliance with the agency’s requirements for guaranteed mobile-home financing. Foreclosure title packages that do not include the required documents will be rejected, the agency warned. Under federal law, a manufactured home must be permanently affixed and classified as real property in the state where it is located. VA will not guarantee financing if the property does not meet the criteria. To ensure that a guaranty claim is fully payable and that the holder has the option to convey the manufactured home to VA, servicers must ensure that home loans with a VA guarantee meet federal requirements. Under the clarified VA guidelines, servicers may submit the ...

New FHA guidance for dealing with mortgages with a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) obligation went into effect last week but uncertainty lingers and its full impact remains to be seen, according to an industry attorney. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued guidance specifically allowing properties encumbered by a PACE lien to be eligible for FHA mortgage financing for both purchase and refinance loans. The department of Veterans Affairs has issued similar guidance. According to Erika Sonstroem, an attorney with the law firm Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, the PACE industry is touting the guidance in its pitches to lenders as posing no risk to mortgage investors. PACE is a program that lends money to homeowners for home-energy savings projects. It is treated much like a tax lien on a property and is included in the ...

Industry trade groups have yet to weigh in on the CFPB’s TRID clarifying rulemaking, but the grassroots rank-and-file have, and many of them are raising more concerns and questions. For instance, Ross Miller, president of Miller Home Mortgage in Metairie, LA, complained that there are no exceptions for the three-day waiting period when there is an emergency. “I had a client whose father was quickly scheduled for open heart surgery,” he said in a comment letter. “The client was ...

The CFPB’s Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule has been blamed for a lot, including, most recently, producing more defects in mortgage loans. According to a new industry trends report from ACES Risk Management Corp. (ARMCO), a provider of web-based audit technology solutions for the mortgage industry based in Pompano Beach, FL, the industry experienced “a significant decrease in defects” through the second quarter of 2015. However, ...

It’s been almost a year now since the CFPB’s integrated disclosure rule went into effect, and industry participants across the credit spectrum appear increasingly comfortable with the new disclosure regime. But when it first came out, the rule took all the oxygen from the room and caused more fear and anxiety that, in retrospect, appears to be have been justified, according to a handful of experts in the non-prime mortgage origination space. Speaking during ...

The CFPB recently provided some written guidance on its mortgage rules to the Conference of State Bank Supervisors. The guidance, in the form of a letter, highlights some of the important changes to the mortgage rules that likely apply to many of the small lenders that CSBS members supervise. The letter, a copy of which was obtained by Inside the CFPB, came in response to a meeting this spring between Texas Department of Banking Commissioner and CSBS Chairman Charles Cooper, members of the ...

Wells Fargo Chairman and CEO John Stumpf will be on what is expected to be a very hot seat before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee tomorrow when he is expected to explain what went wrong at his institution that enabled employees to open more than two million deposit and credit card accounts that may not have been authorized by consumers. CFPB Director Richard Cordray is also scheduled to testify, as is Comptroller of the Currency Tom Curry and ...

First it was Corinthian Colleges, then ITT Educational Services. Now, Bridgepoint Education Inc. has been taken to task by the CFPB over alleged misconduct. Last week, the bureau brought a $31.5 million enforcement action against the for-profit post-secondary education company based in San Diego, accusing it of deceiving students into taking out private student loans that cost more than advertised....

Even Under Trump, Would the CFPB Be Invincible? If businessman Donald Trump wins the White House in November, the CFPB would be in the Republican’s crosshairs for sure. But the bureau’s recent consumer fraud case against Wells Fargo for opening up roughly two million deposit and credit card accounts without authorization has caused such outrage nationwide that it may very well give the controversial regulator a “shield” of sorts. At least that’s what we’ve been…