The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General continued to find weaknesses during a second audit of FHA’s Title II single-family lender renewal process despite steps already taken by the agency to strengthen its controls. In a new report released last week, HUD’s internal watchdog recommended additional improvements, some of which were rejected...

Federal banking regulators have the unenviable task of harmonizing two mortgage disclosure documents – one under the Truth in Lending Act and one under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act – for consumers who generally won’t read them and don’t fully understand them when they do. And mortgage lenders have the same kinds of stubborn obstacles to overcome if they’re going to be able to more effectively design and successfully market products consumers will respond…

There’s probably not “a secret sauce” that banks can use to juice up their Community Reinvestment Act rating, but a deliberate, cohesive strategy and “complete buy in” from CEO to receptionist will go a long way, bank and government officials said recently...

Recent CRA Ratings…

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is in conciliation talks with 22 FHA-approved mortgage lenders about “credit overlay” practices that resulted in a denial of credit to FHA-qualified borrowers. Agreements between HUD and the lenders may be announced within the next few weeks, said a HUD spokesperson, who declined to comment further because the issue is still in mediation. Discussion between HUD and the lenders have been ongoing since the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, an association of more than 600 community-based organizations, filed individual complaints against the 22 lenders late last year for alleged ...

A proposed rule that would allow lenders in the federal Farm Credit System to participate in the FHA mortgage insurance programs is being closely scrutinized at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The measure is one of several regulatory actions taken by HUD in response to President Obama’s directive in January calling for a government-wide review of rules and regulations. The review is aimed at weeding out rules that are outdated, unnecessary, excessively burdensome, and redundant or in conflict with other federal rules. Twenty rules, including the proposed FHA approval for FCS lenders, are now being streamlined or rewritten to ease the regulatory burdens of small businesses and spur economic growth. The proposed changes build ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is finalizing proposed guidelines streamlining reporting requirements for small FHA-approved lenders. Under the proposed guidelines, federally supervised, FHA-approved lenders with under $500 million in total assets would have alternative requirements for reporting their financial condition. FHA lenders are currently required to submit audited financial statements as a condition for FHA lender approval or renewal. In lieu of an audited financial statement, the proposed rule would require smaller supervised lenders to submit a copy of the unaudited regulatory report they provide ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is increasing its focus on tighter underwriting with actions against pregnancy discrimination in home mortgages. The department recently charged Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., PNC Mortgage and others for allegedly refusing to provide mortgage insurance on a Pennsylvania loan unless the borrower returned to work from maternity leave. The FHA requires approved lenders to review a borrower’s income to determine his or her ability to repay the mortgage. However, lenders are prohibited from inquiring about future maternity leave. According to HUD’s complaint, MGIC notified ...

Wells Fargo, the biggest originator of Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans, is exiting the reverse mortgage market after 20 years due to the unpredictability of property values. The departure of the San Francisco-based lender is another major blow to the wobbly HECM market already weakened by plummeting home prices. In February, Bank of America, the second largest HECM producer, announced it was quitting the reverse mortgage market to focus on other lines of business. The two institutions showed a combined ... [includes one data chart and one graph]

Even though the collapse in the mortgage market took down some bigger lenders structured as real estate investment trusts, the surviving REITs have emerged stronger and some are edging back into originations. Market capitalization for the sector has surged, from about $1.6 billion in 2000 to $36.1 billion (residential) as of May 31, 2011, according to a new report by analysts at Keefe Bruyette & Woods. But there have been some pretty big sinkholes along the way, with Thornburg Mortgage and New Century forced to shutter their operations. Their demise represented a combined loss of...