Financial industry trade groups want all Title II forward mortgage loans that meet FHA requirements to be treated as “safe harbor” qualified mortgage loans instead of being lumped in either of two QM buckets as proposed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Commenting on HUD’s proposed definition of a “qualified mortgage,” the industry groups – Mortgage Bankers Association, Consumer Bankers Association, Consumer Mortgage Coalition, American Bankers Association, and the Independent Community Bankers of America – urged HUD to ...

Proposed options for adjusting FHA products, market presence and powers could have a direct effect on the availability of credit for borrowers and on the FHA’s ability to respond to changing market conditions, according to a new study by the Government Accountability Office. In certain instances, the recommended changes would entail tradeoffs – a downside for every upside. Industry participants, researchers and the FHA have suggested these options to improve FHA’s long-term viability or for shrinking the agency’s footprint in the mortgage market. The GAO undertook the study to determine ...

It’s a done deal that the Federal Housing Finance Agency will make “across the board” reductions in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan limits that will take effect in May 2014, but factions in the housing and mortgage industries are already drafting contingency plans if the cuts are too deep. “I would say if they are significantly – 5 to 10 percent – reduced, then you will see new legislation,” said one industry lobbyist who’s been tracking the issue for well over a year. In other words, if the national loan limit falls...

Countrywide Financial Corp. committed fraud when it sold questionable mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac prior to the financial crisis, a New York federal jury determined this week. Bank of America acquired CFC in 2008 and is liable for the fraud. The jury also found that Rebecca Mairone, a former chief operating officer for CFC’s subprime division, Full Spectrum, is liable for fraud for her role in leading its “Hustle” loan program, which was designed by Countrywide to speed up approvals for unqualified borrowers.

The law firm that pursued a nearly decade-long class-action fraud lawsuit on behalf of investors against Fannie Mae and their former auditor, KPMG LLP, until its settlement in May say they are entitled to a piece of the $153 million payout, plus expenses. In papers recently filed with the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, the firm of Markovits, Stock & DeMarco of Cincinnati is seeking attorneys’ fees in the amount of $29.1 million or 22 percent of the settlement amount, plus $15.3 million in “out of pocket” expenses incurred in the nine years of pursuing the class action.

The CFPB has decided to end its controversial policy of sending enforcement attorneys to routine examinations of supervised financial institutions, effective Nov. 1, 2013. According to CFPB Deputy Director Steven Antonakes, the bureau has been sending enforcement attorneys to on-site exams for a couple years and has changed its practice after assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of the operation. “From the beginning, we intentionally grouped our supervision, enforcement and fair lending offices together because...

The CFPB is putting into place a prioritization framework, apportioning examination, investigation and fair lending resources across product types, and it may well prove to be particularly significant for nonbank entities. “A specific charge of the bureau is to attempt to level the playing field between banks and nonbank entities relative to compliance with federal consumer financial laws,” said CFPB Deputy Director Steven Antonakes in a speech before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s Advisory Committee on Economic...

Consumer complaints submitted to the CFPB dropped 8.5 percent from the second quarter of 2013 to the third, the second consecutive quarterly drop, according to a new Inside the CFPB analysis of the bureau’s complaint database. The findings suggest financial services providers are getting a better handle on issues driving consumer gripes to the bureau, and doing a better job of responding to those complaints once they are lodged. Eight of the top 10 financial institutions as ranked by cumulative total of complaints saw a drop...

More than one in five loans originated today would not satisfy the criteria for the qualified mortgage “safe harbor” legal protections under the ability-to-repay rule promulgated in January by the CFPB, according to an analysis by ComplianceEase, a provider of risk management solutions to the financial services industry. The company’s analysis also found that more than half of such loans – or at least 10 percent of recently originated mortgages – have fees that exceed the new 3 percent points-and-fees threshold. Further, “Loans...