Fairholme Capital Management, in a new letter to clients, once again lays out its argument for investing in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock, but also takes a subtle, but polite, swipe at those opposed to a “recap-and-release” plan for the GSEs. “Only the disingenuous would assert that recapitalization of these companies would take decades and come at taxpayers’ expense, as if retaining earnings precluded the ability of each company to raise equity from private investors,” the mutual fund manager writes. Fairholme also notes that it owns GSE junior preferred shares – as opposed to common – because “…the provisions of the preferred stock contracts that...

Late last week, a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed with arguments made by PHH Corp. and blocked three separate efforts to intervene in the dispute the lender has with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In a simple, single-page order, the three judges "ordered that the motions be denied." The ruling affects...

A federal appeals court has rejected government efforts to reverse a September ruling by Federal Claims Court Judge Margaret Sweeney ordering the government to turn over various memos, emails and presentations to investors in litigation involving the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac net worth sweep. On Jan. 30, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of investors in the two government-sponsored enterprises, upholding Sweeney’s earlier decision, and ordered the government to release 48 of the 56 documents because they don’t merit privilege treatment. Eight of the documents were...

Societe Generale has agreed to pay $50 million to the Department of Justice to settle civil charges alleging it misled investors by promoting and selling securities backed by badly underwritten mortgage loans. According to the DOJ, the French bank made false representations regarding SG Mortgage Securities Trust 2006-OPT2, a $780 million debt issue it organized more than 10 years ago. As part of the settlement, SocGen admitted that many of the loans in the deal were improperly underwritten and should not have been securitized. For example, the bank admitted...

Housing and Urban Secretary-Designate Ben Carson said he would want an expert in housing finance to lead the FHA and help draw disillusioned lenders back into the FHA single-family mortgage program. In a written response to questions from Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-OH, ranking minority member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Carson provided no detail on how he would entice previous lenders to return to the FHA. Carson made clear, however, that if confirmed he would seek a “strong housing finance practitioner who believes in the mission of the FHA” for the job of FHA commissioner. “We will work hard to balance mission and risk to preserve and sustain FHA now and into the future,” he wrote. “We will also use existing authorities to increase the certainty of loan eligibility in an effort to attract back many of the lenders who are no longer ...

The Mortgage Bankers Association has asked the Trump administration to help close a loophole in the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program that could put consumers at risk. In a recent public service video, Pete Mills, MBA senior vice president for residential policy and member engagement, said the MBA has been in contact with the president’s transition team to see if there is a way to incorporate consumer protections into the program. Mills noted a “significant void in consumer protection” due to the structure of PACE programs. The PACE program allows local or state governments, when authorized by state law, to finance the upfront cost of energy upgrades on commercial, residential or industrial properties. A PACE loan is repaid over a set period – typically 10 to 20 years – through a special assessment on the property on top of the owner’s annual property tax bills. It has seniority over all ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this week announced a Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act enforcement action against a nonbank lender that appears to reflect a traditional interpretation of the law’s anti-kickback provisions, while a flurry of new paperwork fell on its controversial legal battle with PHH Mortgage. The bureau this week brought a $3.5 million enforcement action against Prospect Mortgage, accusing the firm of illegal kickbacks for mortgage business referrals from real estate brokers, and in an unusual twist, a mortgage servicing operation. The CFPB said...

The Independent Community Bankers of America is urging the Trump administration to push for the elimination of disparate impact from federal fair lending laws to curb “fair lending overreach” and unwarranted enforcement actions against community banks. The ICBA is seeking an amendment to federal fair lending laws to bar certain disparate-impact causes of action. The amendment would clarify that disparate impact without a finding of an intent to discriminate is not a fair lending violation. “This would ensure that community banks that uniformly apply sound and neutral lending standards are not subjected to unnecessary regulatory enforcement actions or frivolous and abusive lawsuits,” said Lilly Thomas, ICBA senior vice president and senior regulatory counsel. Thomas said...

Late last week, PHH Corp. followed up on the opportunity afforded it by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and filed its legal response to the arguments the Department of Justice made late last year in defense of the CFPB’s petition for an en banc rehearing in its dispute with the mortgage lender.The DOJ’s brief “asserts support for rehearing en banc, but not for any of the reasons advanced by the CFPB,” PHH said. “Indeed, the brief never actually defends the CFPB’s structure as consistent with the Constitution. Nor does the brief claim anywhere that the panel erred in its choice of remedy, its decision to reach the separation-of-powers issue, or its discussion of ...

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-OH, and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, late last week submitted a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit seeking to intervene on behalf of the CFPB in its action against PHH Corp. “Movants now seek to intervene in this litigation because recent events have made it clear that their interests in preserving the leadership structure they voted for [in enacting the Dodd-Frank Act] may no longer be adequately represented by the new administration,” Brown and Waters argued. “Indeed, absent intervention, it is possible that the panel’s decision will be insulated from review, thus nullifying movants’ votes to establish the CFPB as an independent agency and their ability to establish similar independent ...