The Justice Department has sued Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., the nation’s largest mortgage insurance company, and two of its underwriting staffers, accusing them of discriminating against women mortgage loan applicants who were on paid maternity leave. The government’s suit, filed July 5, 2011, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, accuses MGIC of requiring women on paid maternity leave to return to work before the company would insure their mortgages...

Fannie Mae late last week notified its lenders that the GSE has modified its requirements for reporting notifications of mortgage insurance revisions, mortgage insurer-initiated cancellations and claim denials.

Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Company chalked one up in the win column in some litigation it’s having with Bank of America over MGIC’s decision to rescind flow-policy coverage of 1,400 or so mortgages that were originated by Countrywide between 2006 and 2008...

PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. has launched its MODEL servicer program; the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is an epic financial services law of unprecedented scale; American voters strongly support pro-housing politicians; MORE...

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 ...

There would be fewer FHA-insured mortgage loans originated in more than 20 percent of U.S. counties if the current FHA loan limits were allowed to revert to limits set by the Housing and Eco-nomic Recovery Act, the Department of Housing and Urban Development warned. Evaluating FHA-insured mortgage loans originated in 2010 and 2011 to date that had loan sizes exceeding the HERA limits, HUD found that approximately $14.2 billion, or about 6 percent, would not have been endorsed had HERA restrictions been in place at the time. While 669 counties would likely...

Facing significant penalties from investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Wall Street banks are bracing for investigations of their securitization activities by the influential New York attorney general’s office and other state regulators. NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has reportedly launched an investigation into the securitization processes of Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, UBS and Deutsche Bank. All the parties declined to comment, but reports say that the AG is looking into how the banks securitized mortgage loans, as well as their other practices handling mortgage loans. Specific concerns have...

New primary mortgage insurance activity declined in step with slowing mortgage origination activity in the first quarter of 2011, and private MIs took more than their share of the hit, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. A total of $93.54 billion of mortgages originated in the first three months of the year carried primary MI coverage, down 20.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010. That was, however, less severe than the 35.0 percent drop in new loan originations over the same period. As refinance transactions represented a smaller share of... [Includes two data charts]

The Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly looking into the securitization and put-back practices of Credit Suisse and JPMorgan Chase in connection with alleged recoveries from defective mortgages repurchased by originators from securitization trusts. Credit Suisse confirmed to Inside MBS & ABS a disclosure made by bond insurer MBIA Insurance Corp. that the Zurich-based bank had received a subpoena from the SEC seeking data on repurchases of certain defective loans. The disclosure was made in a lawsuit against three Credit Suisse units – Credit Suisse Securities, DLJ Mortgage Capital, Inc. and Select Portfolio Servicing – which MBIA filed with the New York State Supreme Court on April 29. The suit seeks to compel Credit Suisse to turn over data which MBIA believes would bolster its fraud and breach-of-contract claims against...

Private mortgage insurers continued paying MI premiums to captive reinsurance entities sponsored by mortgage lenders in 2010, but the payment flow declined further in a business arrangement that is gradually winding down. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of annual private MI regulatory filings reveals... [Includes one data chart and one graph]