During the recent annual meeting of the Mortgage Bankers Association, a top compliance expert highlighted some of the biggest issues and concerns the industry faces under the new data collection and reporting regime ushered in by the CFPB’s updated Home Mortgage Disclosure Act rule. The short list of the most significant considerations, of course, includes the fair lending implications of the new requirements. Mitch Kider, chairman and managing partner of the Weiner Brodsky Kider PC law firm in Washington, DC, told attendees at one break-out session that HMDA data accuracy (or errors) sets the tone for an entire CFPB examination. “Most of the new data fields companies already have,” he said. “Do you know what story your data currently tells ...

The CFPB recently issued some proposed policy guidance for its Home Mortgage Disclosure Act rule that could help borrowers on the data privacy front, but it might not be enough, according to one compliance attorney. “On the heels of the Equifax data breach and continued cybersecurity threats, the CFPB’s guidance is a clear attempt to alleviate concerns regarding identity theft and information security,” Alexander Koskey, an associate in the Atlanta office of the Baker Donelson law firm, said in a recent client note. “However, significant privacy concerns persist that the increase in the amount of data that is being disclosed for the first time will make it easier to discover the identity of applicants and borrowers.”Additionally, given that the ...

African-American and Hispanic Borrowers Allegedly Harmed by Provident Will Receive $9 Million in Compensation. Last week, Garden City Group, the settlement administrator for Provident Funding Associates, mailed out checks to African-American and Hispanic borrowers to compensate them for having been unlawfully charged higher interest or broker fees on their mortgages from Provident.... Ocwen Enters Into Agreement with Hawaii to Resolve Regulatory Action. Ocwen Financial settled some outstanding issues with regulatory authorities in Hawaii last week, continuing a streak the nonbank servicer has been on for the last two months or so....

The Department of Justice has announced a non-prosecution deal with the Royal Bank of Scotland, which includes a $44 million settlement, to resolve a criminal probe of the bank’s activities in non-agency MBS and collateralized loan obligations. The probe accused the bank of defrauding more than 30 customers that purchased residential and commercial MBS as well as ABS over a five-year period beginning in 2008. The group that handled the sales of these securities for RBS was ...

There have been a number of moving parts in GSE shareholder cases recently, including oral arguments heard this week in one case and three separate lawsuits asking the Supreme Court of the United States to review the constitutionality of the structure of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Attorney and managing partner David Thompson with Cooper & Kirk in Washington, D.C., who represents the shareholders in Christopher Roberts vs. FHFA, participated in this week’s oral arguments in the Seventh Circuit Court. He called the net-worth sweep unlawful because it imposed a “mandatory zero-capital regime and violated its own statutory commands to preserve and conserve assets and restore them to soundness.”

A handful of shareholder lawsuits challenging the government’s net worth sweep of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac earnings have landed at the Supreme Court of the United States, asking the top court to review the constitutionality of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Back in September, the FHFA filed a motion to dismiss in Atif Bhatti, et al., vs. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, stating that the plaintiffs lack standing to bring claims of their alleged injuries being related to ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development will review its current lender-certification process and defect taxonomy to address industry concerns about costly penalties and settlements arising out of False Claims Act lawsuits. In remarks at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual convention in Denver this week, HUD Secretary Ben Carson said the review would benefit greatly from feedback by lenders and other stakeholders in response to President Trump’s directive to all federal agencies to eliminate burdensome and duplicative regulations. Carson said HUD’s immediate concern is bringing back lenders that have exited the FHA single-family program or limited participation because of the undue risks they face from FCA enforcement. Lenders need clarity in what HUD expects from them in terms of lending and reduced exposure to outsized liability from immaterial errors, the ...

Brian Montgomery, President Trump’s nominee for assistant secretary for housing and FHA commissioner, reiterated his commitment to fight fraud and misrepresentation in FHA lending but wondered whether the Department of Justice had gone too far in using the False Claims Act as an enforcement tool against lenders. Testifying during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Montgomery expressed concern whether the DOJ and the Department of Housing and Urban Development had been adversarial towards lenders in their efforts to stem taxpayer losses and protect the FHA insurance fund. In prepared testimony, the nominee said the government must do better in providing clarity to encourage lenders to make FHA-insured loans and entice those that have exited for fear of exposure and liability to return to the ...

A Ginnie Mae/VA anti-churning task force is looking at a number of options to solve the rapid prepayment problem, which could include extending the seasoning requirement for all refinanced loans and prohibiting access to custom pools. A Ginnie representative declined to provide further details, adding that the task force is not ready to announce changes yet. “But we will take additional action soon, which we can do through program changes like we did last year,” he said. Ginnie issued guidance last year to curb aggressive refinancing of VA loans that underlie Ginnie mortgage-backed securities. The rapid refis have resulted in rapid prepayments to the detriment of investors with no clear benefits to VA borrowers. The guidance required six consecutive monthly payments before delivering a streamlined refi loan into a standard Ginnie MBS. The measure succeeded in stopping the ...

Overall denial rates for nonconventional loan applications (FHA, VA and Rural Housing Service) fell slightly in 2016 to 13.4 percent from 13.9 percent in 2015, Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data showed. In the nonconventional refinancing segment, denial rates rose to 32.9 percent last year from 30.3 percent in the previous year. Approximately 23.9 percent of FHA loan applicants were denied last year while VA turned down 20.0 percent of borrowers who sought a VA loan. An estimated 14.3 percent of FHA purchase-loan applicants were turned down. VA denied 11.4 percent of its purchase-mortgage applicants although its total purchase-loan applications are far fewer compared to FHA. According to the Federal Reserve’s overview of the 2016 HMDA data, as in past years, blacks, Hispanics and “other minority” borrowers had notably higher denial rates overall compared to white borrowers. Denial rates for ...