The Obama administration’s Housing Scorecard for September paints a reasonably rosy picture of efforts to help troubled homeowners and future market prospects. With record low mortgage interest rates, housing affordability increased modestly. But the number of new default notices rose from 59,500 in August to 78,900, which is still well below the 96,500 level of a year ago. Notably, sales of real estate owned properties were down this period. Preliminary numbers from July 2011 show that there were 46,200 REO sales, as opposed to 62,200 in June and 61,800 a year ago. New home sales were down slightly in...

Negotiations among major banks and state attorneys general to settle problems in foreclosure servicing practices reached a one-year anniversary this week with little apparent progress over the key issue of how much litigation relief the lenders will gain from the deal. “We worked out a tremendous amount of the settlement and gotten a lot done,” said a spokesman for Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who has been spearheading the negotiation on behalf of the states. However, he disputed applying the word “imminent,” which some bankers had used, to describe when the settlement might be finalized. “Let’s not jump...

The Multistate Mortgage Committee of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators last week came out with examiner guidelines for use in reviewing non-depository mortgage loan originators’ and creditors’ compliance with the Federal Reserve Board’s mortgage loan originator compensation rules. The guidelines are intended to promote standardization and consistency within the state regulatory community regarding enforcement of the FRB’s rules. The Fed’s final rules for closed-end credit under Regulation Z introduced loan originator compensation restrictions to protect consumers against the unfairness, deception and abuse that can arise with certain loan origination compensation practices. The rules generally prohibit paying loan originators on the basis of loan terms and conditions, dual compensation to originators by consumers and any other person, and “steering” consumers to loans to receive greater compensation.

One of the emerging supervisory issues for state-regulated mortgage lenders is whether there should be some sort of formal ombudsman office or function within the Multistate Mortgage Committee or at least perhaps an informal “feedback loop” in the context of a multistate examination, according to lender representatives, industry attorneys and state officials themselves. “Right now, there is no formal or even informal feedback loop for licensed companies who are dealing with MMC issues to go back to the Conference of State Bank Supervisors or American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators to talk about issues in general,” explained Donald Lampe, partner and head of the financial services regulatory and compliance practice at Dykema.

After 11 months of negotiations, the odds that the multistate attorneys general talks with most of the nation’s top mortgage servicers will yield any substantive, long-term fruit seem to shrink daily, as officials from two states – including one of the biggest – have decided to bail, in lieu of possible independent litigation. “I have lost confidence that the banks will bring to the table an agreement that properly holds them accountable for wrongful foreclosures,” said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, one of two state AGs to withdraw from the negotiations last week, along with California AG Kamala Harris. “Because our office for some time has anticipated that result, we have begun preparing for litigation.

California. The state amended a number of its mortgage loan originator licensing provisions under the California Finance Lenders Law last week, including one amendment that permits applicants who have an expunged or pardoned felony conviction to obtain a license. The underlying crime, facts or circumstances can be considered when determining whether to issue a license. Another amendment permits a person exempt from the California Finance Lenders Law to register with the Commissioner of Corporations so as to sponsor one or more individuals required to be licensed under the SAFE Act if specific requirements are met.

States are moving quickly to implement laws and regulations facilitating “eExamination” of mortgage lenders, leveraging technological innovation to bring the industry closer towards the goal of self-examination and self-regulation. “We are close to 30 states that are doing eExaminations, and we’re trying to bring on additional states as we move forward,” said Michael Chan, vice president of technology vendor Compliance Ease. “One of the reasons why I would say we’re reaching a tipping point is that state regulators are conducting limited-scope electronic exams,” he added. The idea behind that is...

As state regulators ratchet up their examinations of licensed mortgage companies, lenders are beginning to look for a way to raise concerns and ask questions during the evaluation. Such a mechanism might take the form of an ombudsman or neutral feedback loop that would allow for clarification. “The exam process is supposed to be about regulatory compliance and operation soundness. Right now, there’s no way for licensed mortgage companies to go back to the [Conference of State Bank Supervisors] to get questions answered or provide real-time feedback,” noted Donald Lampe, the leader of Dykema’s financial...

State regulators are gradually working through the pile of licensing applications submitted by mortgage companies and loan originators. The total number of unique entities holding state licenses increased 7.2 percent during the second quarter, reaching 140,421, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of data from the National Mortgage Licensing System. The vast majority of those licenses (76 percent) are held by individual loan officers. Regulators still had some 35,024 licensing applications pending at the end of June, but that was down 23 percent from the previous quarter. And the number of new applications submitted during...