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Inside Mortgage Finance

June 11, 2015

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Home-Equity Lending Tapered Off in Early 2015, But New HELOC Commitments Tick Higher

Americans were too busy refinancing and shoveling snow to get new home-equity loans during the first quarter of 2015, a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis reveals. Mortgage lenders did an estimated $19.5 billion of home-equity lending during the first three months of 2015, based on new commitments for home-equity lines of credit – by far the most active part of the HEL market – plus originations of closed-end seconds. That was down 7.1 percent from the fourth quarter of last year. Despite the slowdown in the first quarter, home-equity production was...[Includes three data tables] Read More

Industry Reps Concerned About CFPB’s Ominous Administrative Action Against PHH Mortgage

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau threw the book at PHH Corp. over its captive reinsurance activities, refuting a handful of court rulings, an administrative letter from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and several points made by an administrative law judge. CFPB Director Richard Cordray overrode a $6.4 million penalty set by an ALJ in the matter and ordered PHH to pay $109.2 million – all the mortgage insurance premiums it received from its captive reinsurer, Atrium, after July 2008, regardless of when the loan was originated. July 2008 was... Read More

More Potential Trouble for Lender-Paid MI: Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner Asking Questions About It

The Office of the Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner has launched a preliminary investigation into lender-paid mortgage insurance, a revelation that is causing additional unease at private MIs. Sources confirmed to Inside Mortgage Finance this week that insurance regulators in the state are looking at what one official called discounting “practices” for the product. He added: “Wisconsin is asking them to name names: ‘Who are you giving discounts to, on what basis, etc.” This official, who did not want to go on the record regarding the matter, said... Read More

RPM Mortgage and MBA Get Vocal About CFPB Enforcement Actions. A Trend or Blip on the Radar?

RPM Mortgage recently agreed to pay the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau $19 million to settle allegations that it violated the agency’s loan officer compensation rule by steering consumers to costlier mortgages and then paying illegal bonuses to LOs for bringing in the higher yielding paper. But shortly after the ink was dry on the June 4 settlement announcement, the privately held RPM and its owner and CEO Robert Hirt went on the offensive, trying to give its side of the story in regard to one pertinent fact: the higher yielding mortgages cited by the agency. A spokeswoman for RPM contacted... Read More

Lenders Frustrated with Reporting Requirements from State Regulators, Seek Delays and Limitations on Data Collection

Lenders pushed back against state regulators that are considering changes to the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System and Registry licensing forms and the Mortgage Call Report. The State Regulatory Registry, which operates nationwide systems for state regulators, received a total of 11 comments from individuals and organizations regarding a proposal issued in May. Lenders provided a few constructive suggestions along with voicing frustration regarding state regulators’ data collection efforts. Pete Mills, a senior vice president of residential policy and member services at the Mortgage Bankers Association, urged... Read More

Abacus Federal Savings Acquitted in Charges Of Selling Bad Mortgages to Fannie Mae

After being indicted for loan fraud in 2012, Abacus Federal Savings Bank was acquitted of grand larceny and conspiracy charges last week that stemmed from a case brought by the New York District Attorney’s office that involved Fannie Mae. The small Manhattan-based bank, which primarily serves Chinese-Americans in the New York region, was accused of mortgage fraud and falsifying documents and then selling those faulty mortgages to Fannie from 2005 to 2010. Following a four-month trial and nine days of deliberations, a New York jury acquitted... Read More

Industry Groups Appeal to Congress Again for Formal ‘Hold-Harmless’ TRID Enforcement Period

Nearly a score of industry trade groups sent a letter this week to the leadership of the House Financial Services Committee, urging them to pass legislation to provide a reasonable hold-harmless period for enforcement of the CFPB’s TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures (TRID) regulation for lenders trying to do their best to comply. “We appreciate that the bureau indicated it will be sensitive to the progress made by those entities that make good-faith efforts to comply,” the 19 groups said in a letter to Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, and Ranking Member Maxine Waters, D-CA. “At the same time, the industry needs... Read More

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