The CFPB made significant changes to its rulemaking agenda in 2018, signaling a weakening role for the bureau in the financial services market. The agency released its spring 2018 rulemaking agenda last week. Noting that it’s under interim leadership pending the appointment and confirmation of a permanent director, the bureau said it is prioritizing meeting specific statutory responsibilities, continuing “selected rulemakings that were already underway,” and reconsidering ...

Investors arguing that the net worth sweep was unjust hit a roadblock late last week when the Seventh Circuit Court ruled that they can’t claim GSE profits post-conservatorship.This latest ruling also led the Federal Housing Finance Agency to try to influence the outcome in similar cases against the agency. The shareholders sought to overturn a 2017 ruling in which a federal judge went against them and granted the government’s motion to dismiss the complaint.In this case, Christopher Roberts, et al., vs. the Federal Housing Finance Agency et al., similar to other shareholder complaints, investors argued that the...

Non-agency MBS traders defeated charges brought by the federal government in two separate cases late last week. In one case, a judge ruled that a lower court erred by admitting evidence against the trader; in the other, a jury determined that bluffing by a trader didn’t warrant a conviction.

The Seventh Circuit Court shot down the chances of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders reviving their Treasury sweep claims last week. Investors Christopher Roberts and Thomas Fischer argued that the preferred stock purchase agreement was illegal and robbed shareholders of their profits.

Neither PHH Corp. nor the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will ask the Supreme Court of the United States to review a lower court decision that overturned the agency’s controversial interpretation of anti-kickback provisions in the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.

An approved issuer suspended last month due to alleged VA loan churning activities is back in Ginnie Mae’s multi-issuer mortgage-backed securities program. Nations Lending, ranked 97th in Inside FHA/VA Lending’s top 100 VA lenders, was reinstated after reaching a confidential agreement with Ginnie Mae, according to a source familiar with the case. The Ohio-based lender has been “fully reinstated and [again] able to use all of Ginnie Mae’s programs that are available for lenders in good faith,” said the source, who asked not to be identified. The source declined to provide details of the agreement, maintaining Nations has been very transparent and was “ahead of the curve” in terms of dealing with the churning problem. “Nations began addressing the issue even before Ginnie took action,” he said. Ginnie neither confirmed nor commented on the report. “The evidence will show what is happening in the ...

Many low-income and minority borrowers are forced into FHA loans by risk-based pricing and overlays in the conventional market, only to be stymied by higher FHA premiums and non-cancellable mortgage insurance premiums, according to a new study from the Center for Responsible Lending. The study, “Repairing a Two-Tiered System: The Crucial but Complex Role of FHA,” examines FHA’s pre- and post-crisis lending to white and minority borrowers. It also evaluates the impact of risk-based and FHA pricing as well as the impact of False Claims Act enforcement, which have limited the FHA program’s effectiveness in meeting homeownership goals, said authors Peter Smith, CRL senior researcher, and Melissa Stegman, senior policy counsel. The authors used Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data from 2004 through 2016, focusing solely on single-family purchase mortgages made to ...

Actions by a number of private mortgage insurers to cut borrower-paid premium rates would enhance affordability and enable private MIs to increase their market share at FHA’s expense, according to an analysis from the Urban Institute. So far, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., Genworth Mortgage Insurance and Radian Guaranty have announced reductions in their respective monthly and single-premium borrower-paid premium rates. The premium cuts will affect more than just affordability, said UI. On March 6, the company announced that it is reducing borrower-paid single-premium rates in most FICO buckets, effective for all MI applications received on or after March 19, 2018. The Philadelphia-based MI also reminded clients that previously announced single-premium restrictions on debt-to-income ratios exceeding 45 percent and a FICO score below 700, or DTI exceeding ...

The number of FHA lenders subject to administrative actions by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in FY 2017 declined from the previous fiscal year, according to the latest report from the Mortgagee Review Board. Published in the April 25 Federal Register, the report showed the number of FHA lenders that were hammered with civil money penalties, lost FHA approval, and received suspensions, probations, and reprimands from Oct. 1, 2016, to Sept. 30, 2017, fell to 20 from 25 in FY 2016. But the biggest change was in the number of lenders cited and disciplined for violation of FHA’s annual recertification requirements. Lenders that failed to meet the recertification requirements in a timely manner but eventually came into compliance totaled 52 in FY 2017, down from 106 in fiscal 2016. On the other hand, 23 lenders agreed to settle with HUD after they failed to ...

After losing an appeal against the Federal Housing Finance Agency last year, Nomura Securities has asked the Supreme Court of the United States to hear its case and help overturn an $800 million penalty it owes the FHFA in a settlement. And the Structured Industry Finance Markets Association is helping in that effort. Nomura hopes the high court can determine whether the Housing and Economic Recovery Act’s extension of the statute of limitations applies to statutes of repose. The firm argues that too much time had passed for the FHFA to bring charges.