Mass Defection of Top Financial Services Attorneys at K&L Gates. A total of 26 top attorneys – including Laurence Platt, Phillip Schulman, Steven Kaplan, Melanie Brody and Jonathan Jaffe – have jumped ship from the K&L Gates law firm in Washington, DC, to the rival Beltway law shop of Mayer Brown. Their new Consumer Financial Services Group will advise leading financial services companies – including banks, investment banks, private equity funds, hedge funds, mortgage companies, marketplace lenders, emerging payment companies and start-ups –as well as various types of participants in the consumer credit and real estate finance arenas. Their specialized focus will include counseling clients on federal and state laws governing the making, servicing, purchase and sale of residential mortgage loans and the ...
Freddie Mac has launched a project to correct some “operational deficiencies” in how it transfers money in and out of mortgage-backed securities trusts. The GSE said in its 2015 10-K filing that the issue has not had a material impact on its earnings or on investors in its MBS. Freddie explained that seller/servicers deposit various funds – such as mortgage principal and interest payments owed to MBS investors and guarantee fees due to the GSE – into custodial accounts for securitization trusts. The funds owed to the company are classified as restricted until they are transferred to an operating cash account. Management, however, determined that Freddie has not maintained detailed pool-by-pool records of funds in the custodial account...
FHFA Ramps Up HARP Social Media Efforts. The Federal Housing Finance Agency kicked off a new social media campaign in late February, #HARPNow, to let more than 367,600 homeowners across the country know about the Home Affordable Refinance Program before it expires on Dec. 31, 2016. FHFA will use Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube to reach homeowners in the 10 states with the greatest concentration of HARP-eligible borrowers. Fannie Names Winner of Second NPL Community Impact Pool. Fannie Mae announced that New Jersey Community Capital is the winning bidder of the company’s second Community Impact Pool of non-performing loans. This pool of loans was structured to attract diverse participation from non-profits, smaller investors and minority- and women-owned businesses. The transaction...
Publicly-traded nonbank mortgage lenders posted erratic results from their mortgage-banking operations during the fourth quarter of 2015. As a group, the nine companies reported a combined $54.08 million in mortgage-banking income for the fourth quarter, a significant improvement from the $26.26 million loss they posted in the previous quarter. But three of the nonbanks – Impac, Ocwen and PHH Corp. – recorded losses on their mortgage origination ... [Includes one data chart]
Despite the desire of mortgage lenders to preserve or expand their origination business this year, many are anxious about increasing compliance risk and more competition, according to a recent survey by Fannie Mae. Of those lenders responding, 88 percent said they are looking to grow their mortgage origination business, continuing a trend from the prior year, versus just 12 percent indicating they want to maintain current levels. No lenders expressed an intention to downsize or ...
Mortgage industry groups continue to rail against the disruptions they insist are being caused by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s integrated disclosure rule known as TRID. Respondents to a February survey by the American Bankers Association indicated that TRID compliance is still a relevant problem, continues to impose a heavy compliance burden, and causes customer dissatisfaction through delayed closings and increased fees and costs, the trade group ...
Commercial banks and thrifts continued their years-long retreat from the business of servicing home mortgages for other investors, and some observers are questioning whether nonbanks are strong enough to pick up the slack. As of the end of 2015, banks and thrifts serviced $4.054 trillion of single-family mortgages for other investors, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call-report data. That was down $84.3 billion, or 2.04 percent ... [Includes one data chart]
As mortgage performance improves, the organization that administers the Homeowner’s Hope Hotline is putting an increased emphasis on helping people qualify for mortgage financing. The Homeownership Preservation Foundation has worked extensively with consumers who suffered problems during the financial crisis but could now be ready to purchase a home. “Boomerang borrowers represent opportunity,” David Berenbaum, the CEO of the Homeownership Preservation Foundation ...
Poor underwriting, rather than the collapse of house prices, more likely caused homeowners to default on their non-agency mortgage loans – a situation that gradually worsened and subsequently caused the country’s worst financial disaster, according to a new report published by University Financial Associates. Subject to a number of caveats, the report’s findings dramatically illustrate the importance of eroding underwriting quality in non-agency mortgage-backed securities ...
The five largest mortgage servicers that got into trouble because of their flawed servicing and foreclosure practices have passed their final test for compliance with the 2012 National Mortgage Settlement, according to the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight. The OMSO report summarizes a set of five compliance reports filed by NMS Monitor Joseph Smith with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for five servicers that were subject to the $25 billion ...