The Conference of State Bank Supervisors is calling upon the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to adopt a petition process to define “rural” counties as the bureau prepares to implement balloon “qualified mortgage” and escrow requirements for rural creditors. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act confers QM benefits on certain balloon loans if they are made in rural or underserved areas. In implementing the standard, the CFPB decided to use the USDA Economic Research Service’s Urban Influence Codes as...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitization volume reached its highest level in nearly four years during the first three months of 2013, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance market analysis and lender ranking.

The independent foreclosure review process established by federal regulators for 14 servicers was “deeply flawed,” Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, said on Thursday in response to a report on the reviews by the Government Accountability Office. Waters said she will introduce legislation next week to address problems relating to use of outside contractors for enforcement actions.

The creation of a “sustainable housing finance policy” and an end to the “too big to fail” oversight approach with large banks top April’s to-do list for the House Financial Services Committee when Congress returns from its two-week spring recess next week.

Funding for the housing programs administered by the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service will not be subject to sequestration even though mandatory budget cuts are now being implemented across the board at all federal agencies.

Nationstar Mortgage clarified that the non-agency MBS it plans to issue in the second quarter of 2013 is an asset-backed security with servicing advances from non-agency mortgages. Genworth U.S. Mortgage Insurance, a unit of Genworth Financial, Inc., announced on Friday that it will offer 24 training classes in April to help mortgage lenders and servicers improve their efficiency and build their business. Fannie Mae President and CEO Tim Mayopoulos said this week that it would be a “mistake” for official Washington to allow the prospect of the newly profitable GSEs to continue to slow walk efforts on housing finance reform.

In a mortgage market thoroughly dominated by agency-eligible home loans, a handful of boutique products such as no-downpayment loans, “energy-efficient” mortgages and peer-to-peer mortgages are trying to gain a foothold. Navy Federal Credit Union has been offering a no-downpayment mortgage since 2010, and officials said demand for the “HomeBuyers Choice” product has grown this year. The credit union holds originations of the no-downpayment loan in portfolio. The product is available for balances ...

Major banks significantly increased their use of principal reduction loan modifications in 2012, according to new data from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The eight banks and one thrift tracked by the OCC completed 126,283 principal reduction mods in 2012, up from 43,396 the previous year. Principal reduction was used on 20.0 percent of all loss mitigation actions taken by the firms in the fourth quarter, up from an 8.5 percent share in the fourth quarter of 2011. Mortgages in non-agency MBS ...

Reaction to a report about Obama administration efforts to get banks to increase their purchase mortgage lending, particularly through the FHA, has ranged from supportive to dire warnings of déjà vu. Apparently, administration officials are trying to push banks to make more loans to qualified lower-income borrowers as well as minority and first-time homebuyers who have been shut out of the mortgage market because of stringent credit overlays. The report, which ran in the April 2 Washington Post, described the targeted borrowers as “people with weaker credit,” which, for some, conjures up the ...

The FHA is seeking comment on a proposal to change the period for reviewing loans for direct endorsement from pre- to post-closing in order to increase the number of acceptable loans and, therefore, reduce any potential risk to the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. Under the proposal, a lender applying for unconditional direct endorsement authority would be required to submit the necessary loan files only after closing. After determining that the mortgage is acceptable and meets all FHA requirements, the agency would notify the lender that the loan has been endorsed. Current regulations provide for ...