The Mortgage Research Center, which does business as Veterans United Home Loans and/or VA Mortgage Center, has agreed to pay $1.1 million to New York regulators to resolve allegations of overcharging veterans on loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans United was the second largest VA lender in the country in the second quarter, with a 5.4 percent share of the VA market, according to the Inside FHA/VA Lending database. The settlement agreement is part of a consent order entered into recently by Veterans United with the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). The settlement stemmed from an investigation which found that the Columbia, MO-based company did not refund “surplus lender credits” on 322 VA loans originated from Jan. 1, 2011, to June 30, 2014. According to the consent order, borrowers obtained a credit from ...
The private mortgage insurance industry has called for harmonized qualified-mortgage standards to discourage potential arbitrage that might adversely affect consumers. In a comment letter, the U.S. Mortgage Insurers urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to assess whether the various QM standards established under the Dodd-Frank Act have created arbitrage opportunities to the detriment of consumers. The CFPB is about to begin a reevaluation of its ability-to-repay rule/QM rule. QM standards are different for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks than for FHA, VA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USMI said analysis should focus on the different treatment of points and fees and maximum borrower debt-to-income ratio among the various QM standards. The CFPB can address the calculation of points and fees under its ATR/QM rule by ...
Ginnie Mae will not have an annual summit this year but has rescheduled it for January 2018, according to Ginnie Mae’s new spokesperson. Michael Huff, senior advisor, congressional and stakeholder relations, said a new administration and staff departures have caused organizers to reconsider having the annual Ginnie Mae Summit this year, usually held in October. The Trump administration has yet to announce a nominee for the top job at Ginnie Mae since former president Ted Tozer left in January. David Kittle is reportedly a leading contender, but there has been no official announcement or confirmation. So far, Kittle has declined to comment. Kittle is a mortgage industry veteran who began as a loan officer and now heads his own company. He also was a top executive with the Mortgage Bankers Association and managed, among other things, the group’s political action committee. In addition, Kittle co-founded the ...
Walter Investment Management Corp. is evaluating options for its reverse mortgage business, including the possibility of selling some or all of its assets or collaborating with third parties. WIMC’s reverse-mortgage segment has been adversely affected by the Department of Housing and Urban Developments new requirements, raising the need for additional working capital to finance Ginnie Mae buyouts, according to the company’s 10-Q disclosures. The company reported pre-tax losses of $93 million in the second quarter of 2017. The reverse-mortgage segment reported $16.5 million of pre-tax loss for the same period, following a pre-tax loss of $26.9 million in the prior year quarter. During the second quarter, WIMC’s reverse-mortgage business generated $15.4 million in revenue, down $0.7 million year-over-year. Cash generated by the origination, purchase and securitization of Home ...
Ginnie Mae’s Fiscal YTD MBS Issuances Surpass $400 Billion. A modest volume increase in monthly securitizations in July pushed Ginnie Mae’s FY 2017 overall volume past $400 billion. Ginnie reported that $1.86 trillion of its mortgage-backed securities were outstanding as of July 1, up from $1.84 trillion in June and from $1.70 trillion from the same date last year. Last month, mortgage lenders pumped a hefty $112.4 billion of single-family home loans into the MBS platforms of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, according to an analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. Circuit Courts Split on DOL Overtime Rule. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently held that mortgage underwriters are not “administrative employees” and, therefore, not exempt from the overtime protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The court’s ruling in McKeen-Chaplin v. Provident Savings Bank overturned a ...
Low-downpayment lending is the highest it’s been in almost seven years as the purchase market keeps growing, according to new data from Black Knight Financial Services. “Over the past 12 months, approximately 1.5 million borrowers have purchased homes using less than 10-percent downpayments,” according to Ben Graboske, executive vice president of Black Knight Data & Analytics. “The increase is primarily a function of the overall growth in purchase lending ...
The private mortgage insurance business saw a jump in its share of the primary MI market during the second quarter, and all six active firms racked up solid gains in earnings, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. Private MIs reported $70.65 billion in new primary MI written through traditional flow business activity during the second quarter. That was up 38.4 percent from the first three months of the year, though still slightly below the pace set in late 2016. Meanwhile, the government-insurance market faltered...[Includes two data tables]
The Department of Justice and three other federal agencies will rake in $182 million from separate agreements by Wells Fargo and PHH Mortgage over False Claims Act charges. The PHH settlement features a rare FCA action involving loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Wells Fargo agreed to pay $108 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2006 and unsealed in 2011. It alleged that the bank overcharged veterans by masking unallowable fees and concealing the fact in order to obtain VA guarantees for the mortgage loans. At the same time, Wells allegedly falsely certified to the VA that it was not charging improper fees. Similar charges were brought...
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