Mortgage lenders would be able to extend more credit to traditionally underserved borrowers with greater confidence and sell those loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to proponents of legislation pending on Capitol Hill. H.R. 4211, the “Credit Score Competition Act of 2015,” introduced by Rep. Ed Royce, R-CA, would allow Fannie and Freddie to consider alternative scoring models when determining whether to purchase a residential mortgage. Further, the Federal Housing Finance Agency would be given...

Some small and medium-sized lenders continue to fear that their access to the secondary mortgage market could be hampered if the fledgling common securitization platform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is turned over to the private sector. At this point, the CSP is a joint venture owned by the two government-sponsored enterprises with a long-term future as uncertain as that of the GSEs themselves. But there are rumors that Congress may transfer the CSP to private owners sooner than expected. The vehicle for such a transfer would not be...

New FHA guidance for dealing with mortgages with a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) obligation went into effect last week but uncertainty lingers and its full impact remains to be seen, according to an industry attorney. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued guidance specifically allowing properties encumbered by a PACE lien to be eligible for FHA mortgage financing for both purchase and refinance loans. The department of Veterans Affairs has issued similar guidance. According to Erika Sonstroem, an attorney with the law firm Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, the PACE industry is touting the guidance in its pitches to lenders as posing no risk to mortgage investors. PACE is a program that lends money to homeowners for home-energy savings projects. It is treated much like a tax lien on a property and is included in the ...

Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee had enough votes, despite one defection, to pass a comprehensive alternative to the Dodd-Frank Act that includes a host of changes to the CFPB. The most significant them would be replacing the single directorship with a five-member bipartisan commission and subjecting the agency to the congressional appropriations process. The legislative vehicle they used was H.R. 5983, the Financial CHOICE (Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs) Act, formally introduced 10 days ago by committee ...

H.R. 5983, the Financial CHOICE (Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs) Act by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has incorporated the provisions of a number of bills that have either already passed the committee or the full House of Representatives and that would affect ...

Republicans running the House Financial Services Committee had enough votes, in spite of one defection, to push through a legislative markup this week a comprehensive overhaul of the Dodd-Frank Act that would eliminate the pending risk-retention requirements for ABS other than residential mortgages, among other provisions. The GOP’s preferred legislative vehicle is H.R. 5983, the Financial CHOICE (Creating Hope and Opportunity for Investors, Consumers and Entrepreneurs) Act, dropped in the legislative hopper a week ago by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, committee chairman. “Many post mortems of the financial crisis posit...

Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both want to promote homeownership, but they have different views on how to go about it. The Democrats’ platform supports giving “everyone a fair shot at homeownership” in America by putting them in a financial position to own a home, and preserving the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage while “modernizing” credit score models. The GOP platform assures voters that the “American Dream” of homeownership “is not a stale slogan,” ...

Some of the nation’s largest originators – including Quicken Loans, United Wholesale Mortgage and Freedom Mortgage – are reporting record originations for August, a boom that’s also resulting in headaches industry-wide: namely appraisal and underwriting delays. At this point, few are describing the delays as a crisis, but with September half over, certain originators fear that longer closing times will eat into profits while angering borrowers. “I have...

The House Financial Services Committee this week marked up, mostly on party lines, a comprehensive alternative to the Dodd-Frank Act that would, among other things, create a legal safe harbor for mortgage loans that are originated by a lender and then held in portfolio on its balance sheet. Democrats unanimously opposed the bill and refused to offer a single amendment, continually railing against Wells Fargo and accusing the Republicans of wanting to take the nation “back to the regulatory Stone Age.” The bill passed...

The Federal Emergency Management Agency this week updated Senate lawmakers on efforts to produce more accurate flood maps and flood-risk models. A key change will shift flood-risk analysis and insurance pricing from the so-called 1 percent annual chance of flooding to the actual flood risk to the structure itself. Testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, FEMA Administrator Roy Wright said adopting the structure-based methodology would require an entirely new approach in flood insurance rating and underwriting, including new regulatory hazard and risk products. Other witnesses at the hearing expressed support for the recommendation, saying it would remove the uncertainty caused by constantly changing flood lines in FEMA maps. The hearing is...