A total of $13.6 billion of rural home loans backed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture were securitized during the first nine months of 2015, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of agency data.An estimated $5.1 billion of USDA home loans were delivered into Ginnie Mae pools in the third quarter, up 22.8 percent from the prior quarter. In contrast, the nine-month securitization volume fell 4.4 percent from the same period of the prior year. Nine of the top 10 USDA loan securitizers reported quarter-over-quarter increases. Top-ranked Chase Home Finance maintained its lead over other USDA loan securitizers with $4.2 billion in loans securitized during the nine-month period, down 4.8 percent from the previous year and up 32.8 percent on a quarterly basis. Chase’s nine-month USDA volume translated into a 31.0 percent market share. Second-place Wells Fargo funneled $1.7 billion in USDA loans into ... [ chart ]

The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning to propose changes to rules under its Home Loan Guaranty program related to loan fees, appraisers, limited denial of participation and residual income. Three of the proposed rules are slated for publication in the first quarter of 2016, according to the VA’s semiannual regulatory agenda. Agenda items, however, usually do not follow their publication dates and most rulemakings take a while before they are finalized. One proposed rule would establish reasonable fees that VA lenders may charge in connection with the origination and servicing of VA loans. All proposed fees would be in line with those charged by private mortgage lenders, assuring the sustainability of the VA loan program, the agency noted. In addition, the VA plans to propose rule changes regarding limited denials of participation (LDPs). LDPs are VA-specific sanctions that the Loan Guaranty Service may ...

The share of “unacceptable” ratings for defective FHA loans following a post-endorsement technical review has dropped from double- to single-digits in FY 2015 due to lenders’ mitigation efforts, according to the FHA’s latest loan-review results. FHA’s initial unacceptable rate has remained at 45 to 47 percent over the last four quarters, but lender submission of mitigating documentation has reduced that rate to 5 percent as of Oct. 31, 2015, the FHA report said. This means an overall mitigation rate of nearly 90 percent of the FHA-insured loan sample. The number of initially unacceptable findings and those findings subsequently mitigated are based on 6,415 FHA-insured mortgages that underwent post-endorsement technical reviews between April 1 and June 30, 2015. Of the total loans reviewed, 68.6 percent were purchase loans, 17.9 percent streamline refinance and ...

Joint civil fraud initiatives have resulted in $558.5 million in recoveries and receivables to the Department of Housing and Urban Development in FY 2015, according to the HUD inspector general’s semiannual report to Congress. The amount includes civil settlements of $212.5 million from First Tennessee Bank, $29.6 million from Reverse Mortgage Solutions, and $1.8 million from three other settlements. The settlements resolved enforcement actions brought by the Department of Justice on behalf of HUD in pursuit of civil remedies under a variety of statutes, including the False Claims Act, Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act, and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act. Recoveries and receivables for other entities during the reporting period – April 1 to Sept. 30, 2015 – totaled $86.9 million and $268.2 million for the entire fiscal year. Some of the payments were made to the ...

VA Servicer Reminders. The new maximum allowable foreclosure timeframes published in the Federal Register on Dec. 4, 2015, will be effective for all loan terminations completed on or after Jan. 3, 2016. In addition, the new Net Value percentage (15.95 percent) took effect on Dec. 23, 2015. All Notices of Value issued on or after Dec. 23, must be calculated using the new percentage. Meanwhile, pre-approval requests to deviate from a regulation must be submitted through VALERI (VA Loan Electronic Reporting Interface), the agency’s loan administration system. VA does not grant pre-approval on claim expenses or for additional time to foreclose. These items must be appealed ...

Don’t believe press accounts that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s integrated disclosure rule isn’t causing headaches throughout the mortgage lending industry, top industry representatives said this week. The good news for lenders is: It’s not just your shop that is having problems. Experts detailed the ongoing industry compliance problems with the CFPB’s Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Integrated Disclosure Act rule – the so-called TRID rule – during a webinar this week sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance. “Surely, the rule is...

New information provided to Moody’s Investors Service suggests nearly every lender reviewed in a limited sample has violated the CFPB’s so-called TRID, the Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure rule, at the start of the implementation period, which began Oct. 3, 2015. “Several third-party review (TPR) firms have revealed to us that their reviews of more than 90 percent of the first pipeline of residential mortgage loans subject to the CFPB’s recently enacted TRID had TRID compliance violations, although many of them were only technical in nature,” said Moody’s in a new credit outlook. “These results suggest that some lenders are having difficulty complying with the rules, a credit negative because it increases the likelihood that ...

The CFPB’s new Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (Regulation C) final rule is likely to increase costs for the mortgage industry – and by extension, homebuyers – while raising the stakes for lenders on the compliance front, according to a recent analysis by attorneys with the Morrison & Foerster law firm.“Among the largest costs of the new Regulation C will be necessary updates to data-collection systems, including integration of those systems with application, underwriting, disclosure, origination, and purchased-loan intake platforms, as applicable,” said the attorneys. In addition, HMDA compliance management will take on a whole new significance. “The need for monitoring and controls tied to new HMDA protocols is a few years off, but the preparation curve promises to be steep,” they ...

The House Financial Services Committee held an oversight hearing last week on the Financial Stability Oversight Council, of which the CFPB is a voting member. In response to a softball question tossed in his direction by Rep. Nydia Velázquez, D-NY, CFPB Director Richard Cordray took advantage of the opportunity to tout the work the bureau does and its relation to addressing systemic risk in the U.S. economy. Velázquez stated: “The CFPB’s core mission is consumer protection, which may not seem linked to systemic risk. However, I don’t think that’s the case. Can you elaborate on what role consumer financial protection plays in the stability in the economy and how your agency’s work helps inform FSOC?” Cordray replied: “It’s worthy of ...

Sage Bank, a Lowell, MA-based financial institution with less than $200 million in assets, will pay $1.18 million to settle allegations brought by the U.S. Department of Justice that it violated the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act by discriminating in the pricing of its mortgage loans to African-American and Hispanic borrowers. The government accused Sage Bank of charging African-American and Hispanic borrowers higher prices for residential mortgages than similarly situated white borrowers for reasons that had nothing to do with their creditworthiness. “Specifically, under Sage Bank’s pricing policy, each of its loan officers was assigned a target price, which was the price a loan officer was required to achieve on each home loan, regardless of a ...