With private mortgage insurance eligibility requirements now a done deal, the MI industry may have a new headache on its hands: concerns from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – and their regulator – about the discounting of lender-paid MI policies. Industry officials familiar with the LPMI issue have been telling Inside Mortgage Finance for weeks that the government-sponsored enterprises are taking a close look at the product. Although the Federal Housing Finance Agency declined to discuss LPMI, a spokesman for Freddie Mac offered...
An anonymous group of veteran players in the mini-correspondent channel is pushing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to update the guidance it issued for the sector last year. The investor group, which purchased more than $8 billion in loans from mini-correspondents in 2014, offered alternative criteria it recommends the CFPB use instead when trying to determine if an entity has in fact made the transition from mortgage broker to correspondent lender. The CFPB issued...
Green Tree Servicing agreed to pay $63 million to settle allegations made by two federal agencies regarding its servicing practices. The settlement includes $48 million in consumer redress and a $15 million civil money penalty. Green Tree did not admit or deny the allegations. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission said...
The costs for appraisals for home purchases have increased in recent years, according to some real estate agents responding to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey, with blame being placed on appraisal management companies. “Many agents report that appraisal costs have risen and AMCs’ overhead may be responsible,” said Tom Popik, research director of Campbell Surveys. While lenders aren’t required...
A final rule issued this week by federal regulators setting standards for oversight of appraisal management companies goes against the concerns raised by many industry participants. The rule implements standards required by the Dodd-Frank Act, among other issues. The Consumer Mortgage Coalition, the National Association of Appraisal Management Companies and other industry participants had raised concerns about the rule proposed in April 2014. The proposal established minimum standards for AMCs – which are intermediaries between appraisers and lenders – and allowed states to establish requirements that go beyond the minimum standards. The final rule adopts...
Most of Sen. Grassley's inquiry focused on transparency and whether the president invoked executive privilege over some of the documents pertaining to the third amendment to the PSPAs...
DOJ cites an email written by a Quicken divisional vice president for underwriting who brags that the lender has a team that is “responsible to pushback on appraisers questioning their appraised values.”
Then there was Bert Ely who noted: "In my opinion, American housing policy is leading the country down the same path that led to the last housing bubble..."