Ginnie Mae securitization of rural home loans got off to a wobbly start in the first quarter of 2016 as securitization volume fell 13.8 percent from the prior quarter, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of Ginnie data. Approximately $3.9 billion in loans with a USDA guarantee were securitized during the first three months, with the top five issuers accounting for $2.1 billion of mortgage-backed securities produced by the segment during the period. USDA securitization volume dropped 9.2 percent year over year. Top USDA issuer Chase Home Finance accounted for $1.2 billion of securitized rural housing loans, while PennyMac, in distant second place, finished the quarter with $378.5 million. Wells Fargo ($294.0 million), Pacific Union Financial ($122.8 million) and Amerihome Mortgage ($102.2 million), in sequential order, comprised the rest of the top five issuers. Pacific Union climbed over ...

A new California law requiring condominium homeowner associations to disclose to their members whether the VA or the FHA has certified their buildings will soon take effect.Starting July 1, 2016, California HOAs will have to disclose in their annual budget report whether or not their condominium projects have been approved for VA or FHA financing. Gov. Jerry Brown, D, signed Assembly Bill 596 into law in August last year to encourage more veterans and first-time homebuyers to purchase condominiums and take advantage of the benefits of government-backed home financing. In signing the measure into law, Brown expressed hopes that condominium HOAs will step up their certification or recertification process. Assemblyman Tom Daly, D-Anaheim, author of the bill, estimates there are 28,000 condo projects in the Golden State, and only a third are FHA-certified. There are far fewer projects that are ...

The California Association of Realtors renewed its push for rules addressing the proliferation of FHA-insured mortgages that have Property Assessed Clean Energy super liens. In a recent letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan, the CAR requested that both FHA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development adopt policy that is consistent with the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s existing policy on PACE liens. Specifically, such a policy would prohibit the use of PACE encumbrances with a “super lien” priority over mortgage financing. The group also urged HUD to issue guidelines directing FHA lenders and servicers not to place PACE liens above any mortgage insured by FHA. The CAR expressed concern about how PACE liens might affect the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, which is currently recovering from years of losses. “If the ..

Compass Point predicts that CFPB will lose its dispute with PHH. The CFPB is hosting an eRegulation webinar. HUD and First Citizens Bank (SC) resolve a fair lending complaint spurred by HMDA data. And CFPB staff exit for SunTrust and JH Capital Group.

A key judicial review panel last week said the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s March bid to consolidate all the GSE shareholder lawsuits and transfer them to one court was “inappropriate” and rejected the government’s request. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation said that the government’s case for centralization was not strong enough. “On the basis of the papers filed and hearing session held, we conclude that centralization is not necessary for the ...

A judge overseeing a key GSE shareholder lawsuit says she will look at another batch of government documents to determine whether they should be made available to the plaintiffs. The Federal Housing Finance Agency and Treasury Department are opposing the decision. Judge Margaret Sweeney’s May 20 order, in the Fairholme Funds, Inc. v. The United States case, requests that the defendants provide the court with hard copies of some of the documents listed in the ...

A bill making its way through the New York state legislature has prompted concerns among servicers and the Mortgage Bankers Association, who warn that the bill’s requirements regarding abandoned properties would increase costs and legal risks for servicers. A.6932-A, the Abandoned Property Neighborhood Relief Act, was recently approved by New York’s Assembly on a 116-22 vote. The bill would require servicers to periodically inspect properties tied to delinquent mortgages, report vacant properties to a state registry and provide authorities with tools to prompt servicers to maintain abandoned properties, among other provisions. “There is...

First Mortgage Corp., a privately-held mortgage company based in Ontario, CA, and six executives have agreed to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $12.7 million to resolve charges they concocted a scheme to defraud investors in Ginnie Mae MBS, the SEC announced this week. According to the SEC’s complaint, from March 2011 through March 2015, FMC repurchased current loans from Ginnie pools that it claimed were delinquent. FMC bought...

HSBC Bank has filed a summons with notice in the New York State Supreme Court on Bank of America and Merrill Lynch to appear and face charges alleging complicity in the origination and sale of toxic mortgage loans that led to millions of dollars in losses to investors. Filed last week, the summons alleges that BofA, Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Home Loans were aware of the defects in approximately 1,359 residential mortgage loans that were securitized and sold to investors in 2007. The loans had an aggregate principal balance of $564.8 million. According to filing documents, Merrill Lynch purchased...

A California-based mortgage lender and six senior executives have agreed to pay $12.7 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve allegations they schemed to defraud investors in the sale of residential mortgage-backed securities with a Ginnie Mae guarantee. The SEC complaint alleged that, from March 2011 to March 2015, Ginnie Mae issuer First Mortgage Corp. and its top executives pulled current performing loans out of Ginnie Mae MBS. The issuer falsely claimed that the loans were delinquent so that it could recycle them as newly issued MBS and sell them at a profit. FMC allegedly issued Ginnie Mae MBS prospectuses with false and misleading information by using a Ginnie Mae rule that allowed issuers to repurchase seriously delinquent loans. In addition, the SEC complaint alleged that FMC deliberately delayed depositing checks from borrowers who had been behind on ...