The transition away from the London Inter-bank Offered Rate could prompt significant tax issues for MBS and ABS investors. The Structured Finance Industry Group wrote to the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury last week requesting guidance on the issue. LIBOR won’t be available after 2021 and market participants are looking for an alternative reference rate. Various securities are tied to the London benchmark rate in terms of the loans that back the deals and their ...
Rating services are getting more comfortable with ABS and MBS stocked with loans originated by marketplace lenders. The share of such issuance with credit ratings is increasing and credit enhancement requirements for the deals are declining. Marketplace lenders, also known as fintech lenders, started by matching individual investors with borrowers, and funding evolved in recent years to institutional investors and ABS and MBS. Some $2.6 billion of marketplace lending ABS ...
The Department of Labor in March proposed a new threshold for overtime eligibility. The proposal leaves untouched standards that have been in place since 2010, which make mortgage loan officers eligible for overtime pay. Currently, certain employees that make at least $455 per week ($23,600 per year) are exempt from overtime pay, which is paid at 1.5 times the employee’s regular rate of pay when working more than 40 hours a week. The DOL proposed increasing the overtime ...
Ocwen Financial, the nation’s 12th largest servicer, has reached a civil settlement with the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General, to resolve a complaint filed by the state in 2017. As part of the agreement, Ocwen will make a $675,000 payment and provide relief to residential borrowers. The Massachusetts AG said the settlement involves total restitution of $2 million. The AG alleged that Ocwen committed “widespread mortgage servicing violations that increased Massachusetts ...
The market for servicing sales remains strong, according to industry participants. A number of lenders are looking to sell mortgage servicing rights after weighing capital requirements and cash needs with the potential to retain borrowers, according to an analysis by Strategic Mortgage Finance Group.