Two more long-running legacy MBS lawsuits were resolved last week after defendants Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank separately agreed to settle with plaintiffs. The NECA-IBEW Health & Welfare Fund, a union pension fund in Decatur, IL, is seeking preliminary court approval of a $272 million settlement with Goldman Sachs on behalf of entities that purchased MBS issued by defendant GS Mortgage Securities and which Goldman underwrote. If approved, the settlement would put...

Two FHA lenders in Texas have agreed to pay a total of $469,419 in civil money penalties to resolve government allegations they charged bogus fees to borrowers to inflate the purchase amount of newly built manufactured housing. Among 11 alleged violations of FHA rules, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Mortgagee Review Board accused American Home Free Mortgage of Prosper, TX, of artificially increasing mortgage costs by an average of $12,000 per loan through improper fees. The fees were paid allegedly to a company owned and operated by AHFM’s sales manager. In addition, HUD alleged there were multiple violations of quality and annual certification requirements. As part of the settlement agreement, without admitting to any fault or liability, AHFM agreed to pay a $169,419 fine and to the permanent withdrawal of its FHA approval. In June 2014, the MRB also heard a ...

The FHA will not issue a new case number for any FHA-to-FHA refinance if the current mortgage has a repair or rehabilitation escrow account in FHA Connection. The change, which is one of several updates to FHA Single Family Policy Handbook 4000.1, applies only to FHA streamline refis. It aims to ensure that escrow funds of the mortgage being refinanced are properly applied as well as conform to system requirements. The updated sections become effective on Sept. 14, 2015. Another change clarifies that the payoff statement for the mortgage being refinanced is the only document required when calculating the maximum mortgage amount for simple refi transactions. In addition, guidance for loan-to-value limits for cash-out refis has been updated to clarify that the 85 percent LTV restriction applies only to cash-out refis. HUD also noted that appraisers have flexibility in regards to when inspections should ...

FHA Begins Registration of Lenders to Prepare their Transition to the EAD Portal. Lender registration for the transition phase of the new Electronic Appraisal Delivery portal began on Aug. 18. Lenders may select any of the seven onboarding phases, which FHA has established to ensure that lenders have more time to work within the EAD portal to ensure that their systems, data flow and operational process meet portal requirements before the June 27, 2016, mandatory-use date. Although lenders may enter at any phase they choose, the FHA strongly encourages lenders to register for the earliest onboarding phase, and to do it as soon as possible. That would give them more time to get ready for the full transition, the agency said. The first phase begins on Oct. 15, 2015, with additional phases beginning each month and running through the first half of 2016. Information on the onboarding phases as well as ...

A federal appeals court in New Orleans has overturned a 2014 district court ruling, reviving two government MBS lawsuits that were initially dismissed because they were filed past the state’s established time limit. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s separate lawsuits against RBS Securities Inc., on one hand, and against Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, were both filed on Aug. 17, 2012. The complaints alleged that the banks misled investors about the credit quality of the mortgage loans that backed $840 million in non-agency MBS. The district court’s decision to dismiss, however, turned on...

Emerging eClosing technology may make borrowers a little smarter, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but it isn’t easy for lenders to implement. A CFPB report on the agency’s eClosing project found that borrowers who participated in the pilot scored slightly higher in a quiz on the closing process than did those who relied on good-old paper. The eClosers were...

M&T Bank is attempting to reach a settlement with the Department of Justice to resolve an investigation into the bank’s origination of FHA loans and sales of conventional-conforming mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The bank disclosed the investigation in its quarterly filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, noting similar ongoing investigations at other financial institutions. A bank spokesman declined to comment beyond what was disclosed in the SEC filing but noted that the government agencies are conducting one investigation. On the FHA side, DOJ and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General are investigating...

So-called marketing service agreements between lenders and real estate service providers may be going the way of the dodo bird after two top mortgage lenders decided in recent days to pull the plug on such business arrangement, apparently in the face of scrutiny from the CFPB. Prospect Mortgage, a top-30 ranked lender, was the first to officially deep-six its MSAs, ostensibly as a precautionary measure, the company said. The lender said it feared that it could eventually run afoul of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Then Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, said it too was withdrawing from certain business arrangements where MSAs are involved with its mortgage unit, citing what it called “increasing uncertainty surrounding regulatory oversight ...

The CFPB filed suit in federal district court late last month against NDG Enterprise, characterizing the offshore payday lender as a complex web of commonly controlled companies, and accusing the operation of collecting money consumers did not owe, in violation of the Dodd-Frank Act’s prohibition on unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts and practices. NDG Enterprise originates and collects payday loans over the Internet to consumers in all 50 states, including states such as New York where those loans are void because they violate state usury caps and licensing requirements, according to the bureau.“We are taking action against NDG Enterprise for collecting money it had no right to take from consumers,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “Companies making loans within ...

The CFPB recently brought a $38.4 million enforcement action against Paymap Inc., a Colorado-based payment processing company, and a related action against LoanCare, LLC, a Virginia-based residential mortgage servicer, for allegedly deceiving consumers with advertisements for a mortgage payment program that promised tens of thousands of dollars in interest savings from more frequent mortgage payments. Specifically, the bureau determined that consumers were lured with deceptive promises of savings and misled them about when their payments would be applied. According to the bureau, the two companies together marketed and provided the “Equity Accelerator Program” – an electronic payment system that enables consumers to make automatic mortgage payments via electronic debits from their bank accounts. Consumers were usually charged a $295 enrollment fee ...