An Urban Institute analysis echoed observations in the FY 2015 actuarial audit of the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, calling for the separation of the highly volatile reverse mortgage portfolio from the fund. Assessing the performances of the larger forward mortgage portfolio and the smaller Home Equity Conversion Mortgage portfolio when determining FHA’s financial status results in an inaccurate picture, warned Laurie Goodman, director of the institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center. Including the highly unstable, unpredictable HECM business in FHA’s solvency calculation severely distorts the fund’s true financial condition, she said. Goodman’s dire warning puts a damper on the actuarial audit, which, for the first time since 2009, reported the fund’s capital ratio over the 2.0 percent statutory threshold, up from 0.41 percent in FY 2014 and a year earlier than projected in the ...

A coalition of financial services trade groups expressed support for the permanent extension of the one-year protection from foreclosure for service members who have just left the military. The provision under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act will expire at the end of 2015 and revert to the original 90-day protection unless extended by legislation. Eight industry trade organizations in a joint letter urged House lawmakers to extend the provision through 2016 if they cannot make it permanent. Some service members continue to face financial hardship upon returning to civilian life, the groups noted. Slow recoveries in real-estate markets in certain areas of the country, particularly those around military bases, make it difficult for those retiring or opting out after their tour of duty is up to sell their houses. The protection becomes effective on the date the service member is ...

New foreclosure timeframes will become effective for all VA loan terminations completed on or after Jan. 4, 2016, according to a recent notice issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The notice provides a table of foreclosure timeframes – the number of calendar days required to complete a foreclosure – which the VA has determined to be reasonable and customary for all states. The timeframes are important in the calculation of the maximum interest payable on a foreclosure of a VA-guaranteed loan. The VA Home Loan Guaranty program offers a partial guaranty against loss to lenders who make home loans to veterans and active-duty military personnel. Agency regulations spell out the circumstances under which VA will pay loan-guaranty claims. Under VA rules, a guaranty claim can include unpaid interest for a period of up to 210 calendar days from the due date of the ...

The VA Home Loan Guaranty program has announced a new percentage that lenders can use in calculating the purchase price of a property securing a terminated loan. The new percentage becomes effective on Dec. 23, 2015. When a veteran borrower defaults on a VA loan, the agency is obligated to pay a guaranty claim to the loan holder. If requirements are satisfied, a foreclosing loan holder also has the option of conveying a foreclosed property to VA. A key component in conveying a property to the VA is the net value of the property to the federal government. Net value, essentially, is the fair market value of the property minus the total cost the agency estimates it would incur in acquiring and disposing of the property. A percentage that VA computes annually represents the costs of acquisition and disposition. The agency refers to this computed percentage as the “cost factor.” VA is continuing ...

Separate appeals courts this week vacated legal victories that the federal government achieved in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The cases involve former officials at State Street Bank and Trust and a former MBS trader at Jefferies & Company. In 2014, commissioners of the Securities and Exchange Commission voted 3-2 to reverse a ruling by the SEC’s Chief Administrative Law Judge involving James Hopkins, a former vice president and head of North American product engineering at State Street, and John Flannery, a former CIO at the bank. The ALJ had dismissed...

The Department of Justice plans to use the tactics that it employed in cases involving the financial crisis and MBS in efforts going forward to combat financial fraud, according to agency officials. “It is hard to overstate the creativity of this effort,” Michael Blume, director of the consumer protection branch at the DOJ, said during a speech late last week. He called it “a loosely centralized effort, employing civil penalty statutory provisions, involving close cooperation with regulatory experts and leveraging resources from the entire country.” He noted...

Mortgage trade groups submitted a strongly worded brief last week calling for an order by the Federal Communications Commission to be overturned. In June, the FCC issued an omnibus declaratory ruling and order involving the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The order placed restrictions on auto-dialed calls to cell phones. Violators of the TCPA can be subject to fines of $500 per phone call. A challenge to the FCC’s order led by ACA International is set...

PIMCO led non-agency MBS investors in the filing of a class-action lawsuit against Citibank last week, alleging that Citi didn’t adequately perform trustee duties on MBS issued before the financial crisis. The lawsuit claims violations of New York’s Streit Act, which has been cited in several other lawsuits against trustees. PIMCO et al v Citibank was filed in New York’s state supreme court. Other investors involved in the filing include AEGON, Kore Advisors, Prudential and Sealink Funding Limited, and the plaintiffs aim to include all that have invested in 25 non-agency MBS where Citi is the trustee. The deals were issued...

In the ongoing Fairholme Funds v. The United States case, Judge Margaret Sweeney recently denied Fannie Mae’s motion to quash or invalidate a subpoena issued by the plaintiff’s counsel. As part of the discovery phase, Fairholme Funds asked that Egbert Perry, appointed chairman of the noard of Fannie in 2014 and board member since 2008, be called to testify in the case. In the motion, Fannie and Perry argued that based upon the discovery conducted so far, deposing Perry is “unnecessary and burdensome.” The court rejected that and other arguments made to relieve Perry of testifying. In the November order, Judge Sweeney said that the court permitted discovery in this case to ensure that plaintiffs would have every opportunity to...

Wells Fargo is reportedly under investigation for a practice that banks across the industry have relied on for years: cross-selling financial products to their customers. Big banks have been particularly upfront about how they see jumbo mortgages originated for portfolio as a way to cross-sell other products. Cross-selling financial products occurred without much regulatory scrutiny until a lawsuit by the Los Angeles City Attorney in May. LA City Attorney Mike Feuer alleged that Wells’ cross-selling activities violated California’s unfair competition law. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco are also reportedly investigating Wells’ cross-selling. Feuer alleged...