The FHA’s Mortgagee Review Board last week announced it has taken various administration actions against 240 lenders for failing to meet FHA program requirements. The sanctions include reprimands, probations, suspensions, withdrawals of approval, and civil money penalties. Since 2009, the MRB has taken more than 2,300 administrative actions against lenders, including 1,600 in 2010 – a record. ...

Massachusetts. State Attorney General Martha Coakley reportedly plans to obtain documentation filed by Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems as part of the broader investigation by a 50-state coalition of attorney generals into potentially unlawful foreclosure practices. New Jersey. Former mortgage broker Ara Mesropian, 39, of Paramus, NJ, pleaded guilty to charges that he participated in a mortgage fraud scheme which defrauded lenders and generated millions of dollars in fraudulent mortgage loans. ...

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Martin Gruenberg nomination. The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee considered the nomination of Martin Gruenberg to be the chairman and a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Tuesday, July 26. A vote on his nomination has yet to be scheduled. Federal Housing Finance Agency. Suit against UBS, related defendants. The Federal Housing Finance Agency has sued UBS Americas, Inc., and related defendants in federal district court alleging violations of federal securities laws in the sale of residential non-agency mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. ...

Wells Fargo was fined $85 million by the Federal Reserve late last month over allegations that Wells did not adequately detect and prevent instances of fraudulent loan applications and the steering of prime borrowers into higher-cost nonprime loans.The Federal Trade Commission said it is mailing 450,177 refund checks worth almost $108 million to homeowners who were allegedly overcharged by Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. ...

The number of lending institutions whose performance under the Community Reinvestment Act “needs to improve” has skyrocketed over the last two years, according to an analysis by Inside Regulatory Strategies of CRA ratings provided by the federal banking regulatory agencies from 2003 through mid-year 2011. In 2003, 0.64 percent of institutions received such a grade. And by 2009, a year after the market’s collapse, that percentage increased to 1.67 percent. ...

Serious delinquency rates on home-equity loans held by banks and thrifts continued to decline in the first quarter of 2011, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance Bank Mortgage Database. However, the improved performance was led by home-equity lines of credit as the non-accrual rate on closed-end seconds increased compared with the previous quarter. The HEL serious delinquency rate (90+ days late plus non-accrual) and net charge off rates for combined HELOC and closed-end second portfolios was 2.09 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2011. That was down ... [includes one data chart]

MBS and ABS investors would have an easier time organizing to press deal sponsors to address potential problems under a revised proposed rule on shelf registration that was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission this week. The agency made several major changes to its proposed overhaul of shelf eligibility requirements that was aired back in 2010 and put the revised package out for public comment. Most of the changes reflect public comment on the original proposal as well as the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act. Under the latest proposal, MBS and ABS issuers would be required to ...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week filed suit against UBS Securities and various related entities as well as former top officials of the firm over alleged misrepresentations on subprime and Alt A MBS sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two government-sponsored enterprises bought some $4.5 billion of non-agency MBS issued on two UBS shelf registrations between September 2005 and August 2007. The deals included single-seller and conduit transactions with mortgages originated by ...

Significant increases in all major collateral categories pushed non-mortgage ABS issuance up 44.3 percent from the first to the second quarter of 2011, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis. ABS production revved up to $43.2 billion in the second quarter, the highest level since the third quarter of 2009. That brought year-to-date issuance to $73.2 billion, some 28.2 percent ahead of the pace during the first six months of 2010. Deals backed by loans to purchase or lease cars and other vehicles continued to account for the biggest slice of the market. Vehicle ABS issuance rose ... [contains two data charts]

Trustees of residential MBS should consider themselves “on notice” that they need to be much more attentive and aggressive in meeting their obligations under the pooling and servicing agreements governing MBS trusts, according to a trade group representing investors. Last week, the Association of Mortgage Investors sent letters to several major MBS trustees – including JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, US Bank, Wells Fargo and Bank of New York – remind-ing them of their legal obligations to RMBS certificate holders. The AMI letter also informed trustees that ...