Fairholme Funds, the plaintiff in an ongoing GSE shareholder lawsuit, hosted a conference call late last week and dished on recent developments in the case. “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are obligated to protect the capital of all preferred shareholders, not just one of those shareholders, the Obama Treasury,” said Bruce Berkowitz, Fairholme’s CEO. Plaintiffs in Fairholme Funds Inc. v. United States, et al, argue that the U.S. Treasury’s net worth sweep of GSE profits is against the law. “And, really, only those who oppose the dream of American homeownership would attempt to dismantle two publicly traded, shareholder-owned companies that have single-handedly provided $7 trillion in liquidity to support America’s mortgage market since 2009,” he said.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau late last week filed its much-anticipated petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to reconsider some of the key holdings made by a three-judge panel of the court against the agency in PHH Corp. v. CFPB back in mid-October. One such holding was the panel’s determination that the CFPB’s leadership structure is unconstitutional because it is run by a sole director who can only be removed by the president for cause. While an appeal by the bureau was widely expected, the issue took on a new urgency after Republican real estate developer Donald Trump won the presidential election. In its petition, the CFPB asserted...

A federal district court judge in Washington, DC, ordered the transfer of a False Claims Act complaint filed by the Department of Justice against Quicken Loans alleging violation of FHA rules to the nonbank lender’s home court. Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied the DOJ’s arguments to keep the case in the nation’s capital and instead granted Quicken’s motion to transfer it to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in downtown Detroit. Among other things, the government accused...

A U.S. district court judge in New York has certified a class of investors to move forward with mortgage-related fraud claims they have brought against three large banks. MBS investors led by plaintiff New Jersey Carpenters Health Fund sued units of Wells Fargo that were acquired from Wachovia Capital Markets, Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank that helped underwrite $7.7 billion of MBS issued by failed subprime lender NovaStar Mortgage. The plaintiffs accused...

Fairholme Funds officials this week continued to press their case for restoring shareholder rights for private investors in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, expressing hope that the incoming Trump administration will be friendlier to their cause. In Fairholme Funds Inc. v. United States, et al, the plaintiffs argue that the net worth sweep imposed by the Treasury Department and Federal Housing Finance Agency was illegal and that the two government-sponsored enterprises were not in a “death spiral” at the time of the bailout as the government claims. During a conference call this week, Fairholme CEO Bruce Berkowitz said...

Three financial-industry trade associations submitted a joint amici brief to the Supreme Court of the U.S. seeking an end to the confusion over whether extender statutes that refer only to the “statute of limitations” should apply to the “statute of repose” as well. The circuit courts are split on the issue, with four courts deviating from a 2014 SCOTUS ruling in CTS v. Waldburger, in which property owners tried to hold CTS Corp., operator of an electronic plant in North Carolina, liable for damages from toxic contaminants on the land. The property owners filed...

The FY 2016 Actuarial Review showed a stronger FHA mortgage insurance fund, thanks to a surging forward loan portfolio, but the prospect of a price adjustment remains unlikely. Review results were a mixture of good news and bad news. The good news is the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund’s economic net worth grew by $3.8 billion to $27.6 billion – $4.2 billion short of what last year’s actuarial report projected. The capital ratio rose to 2.32 percent, exceeding the 2.0 percent minimum established by Congress to cover future losses. Observers said the increases demonstrate steady but modest growth in the fund. The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s top officials credited the fund’s growth to a stronger forward-mortgage portfolio, which increased by $18 billion to $35.3 billion – $10.1 billion above projections – with a capital ratio of 3.28 percent. The report attributed the increase to a ...

The Department of Justice lost its bid to have an FHA lawsuit against Quicken Loans heard in the nation’s capital after a federal judge this week ordered the case transferred to federal district court in Michigan. Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia agreed with Quicken that the proper forum for adjudicating the government’s False Claims Act case is the Eastern District Court in downtown Detroit. While the court agreed that the case has national implications, it also noted the “strong local interest in this matter in the Eastern District of Michigan,” where “Quicken Loans underwrote the FHA loans at issue, endorsed those loans, and certified its compliance as to those loans.” While certain factors weighed against the transfer, the alleged unlawful activity occurred in or near Detroit, where the lender is headquartered and most of its employees are located. The case, U.S. v. Quicken Loans, ...

Aggressive refinance solicitation can be a double-edged sword for lenders: It could either result in increased VA refi business or, as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found out, consumer complaints. Since the CFPB began taking mortgage-related complaints in 2012, it has received more than 12,500 complaints from servicemembers, veterans, and their families. Of those complaints, 1,800 were related to VA refinancing. The VA offers two types of refinancing options to eligible borrowers – the VA cash-out refinance and the VA streamline refi, or Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan (IRRRL). In a cash-out refi, the veteran homeowner can refinance a VA or non-VA loan into a lower-rate VA loan and take cash out of home equity to pay off a debt, finance an educational pursuit or pay for a home improvement. The VA will guaranty up to the full value of the home. On the other hand, an IRRRL can only refinance a ...

State housing finance agencies’ downpayment assistance poses minimal risk to the FHA, and the scope of the problem is nowhere near the size suggested by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general, according to a new study by the Urban Institute. The study’s conclusion would appear to bolster HUD’s defense of permissible downpayment assistance in a disagreement with the agency’s inspector general. The dispute arose from an IG audit of NOVA Financial & Investment Corp., an originator of FHA-insured mortgages with downpayment assistance provided by state housing finance agencies (HFAs). In a July 2015 report on NOVA’s audit, the IG alleged that some HFAs were allowing downpayment assistance that was being paid for through higher mortgage rates, in violation of FHA requirements for downpayment assistance. It also put FHA’s mortgage insurance fund at ...