More regulation of the private student loan sector seems likely after the CFPB issued a report last week critical of “auto-defaults” in private student lending. According to the bureau, borrowers have complained that some lenders demand immediate full repayment upon the death or bankruptcy of their loan co-signer, even when the loan is current and being paid on time. Borrowers also told the CFPB they face bureaucratic barriers to releasing co-signers from their loans, a commonly advertised benefit that could help avoid auto-defaults. “Students often rely on parents or grandparents to co-sign their private student loans to achieve the dream of higher education. When tragedy triggers an automatic default, responsible borrowers are thrown into financial distress with demands of immediate...

UBS AG and Union Central Life Insurance Co. this week announced they have settled their legal dispute regarding the sale of residential MBS that UBS sold to the insurer in the years leading up to the financial crisis. The settlement reached in early March but jointly announced just this week, ends the legal action begun in a New York federal court in 2011. Union Central and affiliates Ameritas Life Insurance Corp. and Acacia Life Insurance Co. sued UBS and other financial service companies and executives in 2011, alleging that the defendants misrepresented the quality of the loans underlying the residential MBS that they sold to the insurers. In a 2012 amended complaint, Union Central alleged...

The FHA will allow lenders to suspend foreclosures on properties backed by Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans for up to 60 days to help non-borrowing spouses of deceased HECM borrowers temporarily avoid eviction and, possibly, foreclosure. The announcement of the policy came as a federal district court judge for the District of Columbia considered whether to certify a class-action case filed by four surviving spouses of HECM borrowers last month. The lawsuit alleges that HUD had failed to protect them from being displaced from their homes – the same protection HECM regulations extend to reverse mortgage borrowers. The suit accuses the department of violating the federal Administrative Procedures Act by promulgating contradictory regulations without public comment. Last September, a DC judge found HUD in violation of federal law in a similar case and ordered that the case ...

Wells Fargo has expanded its acceptance of electronic signatures on FHA mortgage-related documents to correspondent lenders – a move that could spur other lenders to consider a similar shift as purchase originations rise. Details of the expansion are available in Wells Fargo current Seller Guide. However, access is restricted to correspondent lenders because the guide contains proprietary information, according to a company spokesman. DocuSign, whose Digitized Transaction Management (DTM) platform is being used by Wells Fargo and other financial services clients, said the expansion follows FHA’s announcement earlier this year of acceptance of e-signatures on all single-family origination and servicing/loss mitigation documents, FHA claims and real estate-owned sales contracts, with the exception of notes. The FHA announcement builds on an ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will launch a new, voluntary pilot project later this year to promote e-closings as a way to reduce or eliminate many of the “pain points” associated with the mortgage closing process. But officials at FHA and Ginnie Mae were eager to jump on board and reinvigorate similar efforts of their own in this regard, as many government and industry representatives tried to capitalize on a renewed sense that e-mortgages and a greater use of technology can transform the entire origination process – for all stakeholders, not just consumers. “We’re very excited to see the continued advancement of not only the use of technology, but hopefully more effective means of working together as an industry to improve the overall mortgage process,” said FHA’s Patricia McClung, acting director of single family program development, at a public forum ...

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said this week that housing finance reform can no longer be put off, but no more so than for the FHA which continues to play an “outsized role” in the mortgage market as private capital remains on the sidelines. Speaking in New York at an event co-hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center, Donovan said the Obama administration is squarely behind the legislative proposal by Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-ID. “Despite its imperfections, does this bill represent progress? Absolutely,” said Donovan, seeking to win over housing advocacy groups disenchanted with the bill. “When looking for ways to improve [the bill], let’s not lose sight of its potential. Let’s not forget its importance to the housing market and its future.” The Johnson-Crapo legislative proposal calls for a wind-down of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and creation of a ...

Standard & Poor’s earned a split decision this week in its counter-offensive against the federal government’s civil fraud lawsuit filed last year, which the rating agency claims is payback for its August 2011 downgrade of the U.S.’ ‘AAA’ credit rating. The Justice Department in February 2013 filed a $5.0 billion lawsuit against S&P accusing it of knowingly inflating its ratings of residential MBS and collateralized debt obligations to boost its revenue and market share in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. On Tuesday, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana, CA, denied...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency and the city of Chicago have reached a face-saving settlement in a longstanding legal dispute over whether Fannie and Freddie, as entities under federal conservatorship, are subject to the city’s vacant-building ordinance. Under the terms of a settlement reached earlier this month but announced last week, the two GSEs will voluntarily register vacant properties with the city but won’t be subject to a $500 registration fee. The FHFA will also no longer seek to recover registration fees or penalties already paid to Chicago.

A New York state judge last week dismissed with prejudice a $567 million legal action brought by the Federal Housing Finance Agency against Deutsche Bank in 2012 over the bank’s refusal to repurchase hundreds of millions of residential mortgage-backed securities from Freddie Mac. Judge Eileen Bransten of New York’s State Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled the FHFA’s suit is barred by New York’s six-year statute of limitations.The FHFA sought to have the bank cover Freddie’s losses on defective MBS purchased from a $1.4 billion transaction.

About two-thirds of banks are willing to offer loans that don’t meet standards for qualified mortgages, according to a recent survey by the American Bankers Association. Lenders are concerned about the liability that comes with non-QMs, but borrower demand for non-QMs has prompted a wider range of mortgage offerings than many had projected after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s QM standards took effect. “More and more, in talking to our banks, I would say there’s an increased comfort in going beyond QM, doing business the way they’ve traditionally done business and expecting to meet either the QM or the ability-to-repay standard.” said Jonathan Miller, deputy director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s division of depositor and consumer protection. At a meeting last week by the FDIC’s Advisory Committee on Community Banking, Derek Williams, president and CEO of Columbus Community Bank, said...