The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week filed a request to transfer lawsuits brought by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders in four district courts to the U.S. District Court in Washington. The government-sponsored enterprise regulator hopes to ward off future “copycat” cases and those where plaintiffs may be encouraged to “shop” for the best forum, based on the ruling. FHFA said it is certain that the number of pending complaints challenging the quarterly U.S. Treasury sweep of Fannie and Freddie net income will continue to grow. As a result, the agency said the transfer would be more efficient and benefit the parties and courts. “The claims and relief sought in each of the four related cases are...

After his request was rejected by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Tim Pagliara, director of Investors Unite, filed a lawsuit in state courts this week seeking to gain access, as an individual stockholder, to the corporate records of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. With Fannie chartered under Delaware’s law and Freddie under Virginia’s jurisdiction, Pagliara, along with several other shareholder plaintiffs, argue that the U.S. Treasury Department’s sweep of the GSEs’ profits is illegal under state law. His suit, in particular, focuses on allowing him to inspect the books and records of Fannie and Freddie to get a better idea of the circumstances surrounding the sweep. Under the terms of the net worth sweep, the GSEs...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is looking to consolidate four outstanding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholder cases into one location and said it expects more cases will be filed soon. This week, the agency filed a request to transfer cases pending in four district courts to the U.S. District Court in Washington to discourage “copycat” claims and ensure consistent outcomes. “The claims and relief sought in each of the four related cases are substantially similar,” the FHFA said in court documents. “As a practical matter, plaintiffs are relitigating the same legal issues over and over in hopes of finding a court that will rule in their favor.” So far, there have been 15 complaints challenging the Treasury sweep and...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development this week unveiled final loan-level and lender-level certifications aimed at easing lender anxiety over potential enforcement actions due to minor errors, but a statement from the Justice Department could put a damper on the new FHA policy. The updated version of FHA’s loan-level certification clarifies that lenders will be held accountable for mistakes that would have prompted a lender to change its decision to approve a loan, not for minor errors. In addition, HUD opened a 30-day comment period for lender-level certification to address stakeholders’ concerns that proposed changes to loan-level certification could weaken the department’s enforcement authority. Lender liability under the federal False Claims Act has been...

Loan underwriters who claimed they were improperly classified as exempt and thereby wrongfully denied overtime pay lost on appeal after a federal appeals court determined they were administrative employees “helping run or service a business” as opposed to engaging in loan production. The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit stands in stark contrast to the Second Circuit’s 2009 opinion in a similar case, which held that underwriters are administrative workers who are eligible for overtime pay if they engage in production activities, industry attorneys said. In Lutz v. Huntington Bancshares, Inc., the bank’s underwriters primarily reviewed...

In another legacy residential MBS legal action, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System this week reached a record $130 million settlement with Moody’s Investors Service over the ratings service’s allegedly erroneous ratings of AAA-rated structured investment vehicles in the run-up to the financial crisis. Back in 2009, CalPERS sued Moody’s – along with Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings – after the pension fund claimed massive losses from investments in three structured investment vehicles that depended on the liquidity of assets that proved to be illiquid, such as subprime MBS, collateralized debt obligations and other ABS. In the lawsuit, CalPERS accused Moody’s of making “negligent misrepresentations” by assigning its highest credit rating to the investments. This caused significant losses as the market ...

With only a few isolated exceptions, VA and FHA lending was up sharply across the country last year, outstripping the private mortgage insurance business in nearly every state of the U.S., according to a new analysis by Inside FHA/VA Lending. Overall, FHA single-family mortgages securitized by Ginnie Mae increased 60.5 percent from 2014 and VA production was up 39.4 percent. Meanwhile, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac posted a more subdued 26.2 percent increase in privately-insured loan volume. California remained the biggest mortgage market for the FHA, VA and private MIs, as well as uninsured mortgages. The FHA clearly won the mortgage insurance battle, boosting its share of insured loans in the Golden State from 41.1 percent in 2014 to 49.2 percent last year thanks to a whopping 89.8 percent jump in business. California had one of the highest concentrations of ... [ 3 charts ]

Private mortgage insurers have announced changes in their premium rate structure to make their pricing more risk-based. The question is would this drive borrowers with lower credit scores toward FHA? Lenders say that while the private MI rate changes appear to make it more expensive for borrowers with lower credit scores to obtain a conventional mortgage, FHA’s life-of-loan policy could also cost borrowers more in the end. Analysts, too, are confident that private MI risk-adjusted pricing will not have any significant impact on FHA, positive or otherwise. Six private mortgage insurers have updated their premium rate cards in keeping with the new capital requirements under the government-sponsored enterprises’ Private Mortgage Insurer Eligibility Requirements (PMIERs) that were implemented in January 2016. The proposed rate changes are subject to ...

A clause in a New York home-purchase contract excluding government-backed financing from seller consideration is raising potential disparate impact concerns. A residential-lending manager in Sarasota, FL, emailed Inside FHA/VA Lending a copy of the contract with the controversial language embedded in Section 8 under the heading “Mortgage Commitment Contingency.” The paragraph read in part, “… institutional lender agrees to make a first loan other than a VA, FHA or other governmentally insured loan, to purchaser …”. “The language makes clear that no government-backed loans such as VA, FHA or USDA are acceptable to the seller [of the property],” the lender, who requested anonymity, said. “It is pretty rampant as cash is king and no one on the selling side wants to wait for payment.” Apparently, such clauses are nothing new. In fact, they have been around for ...

The FHA has issued emergency guidance for handling loan applications in areas affected by the water contamination crisis in Flint, MI, while the VA called for special relief for affected Michigan borrowers. A spokesperson for the Department of Housing and Urban Development said FHA lenders have been seeking guidance on how to handle single-family housing properties with an FHA-insured mortgage that may be affected by the tainted water supply in Genesee County., MI. The FHA’s two-page guidance stated that a property in the affected areas must first meet the agency’s property acceptability standards. Lenders are required to ensure that each property has a continuing adequate supply of clean, safe and potable drinking water. In addition, they must make sure the property is safe to occupy and free of any health or environmental hazard. HUD’s Single Family Policy Handbook ...