A federal district court in Florida has agreed to a government motion to intervene in a False Claims Act lawsuit against Bank of America in order to reach a settlement on behalf of a relator. Bruce Jacobs, a foreclosure attorney and relator in South Florida, filed the lawsuit. A former Miami prosecutor, he now represents homeowners in foreclosure proceedings initiated by financial institutions, including BofA. In his lawsuit, Jacobs alleged that BofA submitted false claims in violation of the FCA. Specifically, the bank allegedly submitted endorsements with unauthorized signatures and false mortgage assignments that would confer standing to foreclose. In addition, Jacobs additionally asserted a reverse FCA claim alleging that BofA made false statements when entering into the 2012 National Mortgage Settlement (NMS) consent judgment with the U.S. government. The landmark $25 billion settlement with ...

FHA Announces Revised Method for Calculating Initial MIP for HECM Refis. FHA has modified the formula for calculating the initial mortgage insurance premium for Home Equity Conversion Mortgage refinances with case numbers assigned on or after Sept. 19, 2017. The formula was modified on Nov. 14, 2017. The change conforms to the final rule FHA implemented last year to strengthen the HECM program. The revised formula has been posted on FHA’s HECM page on hud.gov, FHA Connection Release Notes, dated Dec. 28, 2017. The FHAC Release Notes outline the changes and processing instructions for lenders to calculate the initial MIP for HECM refis. HUD Releases Guide to Help Borrowers and Disaster Victims Avoid Foreclosure. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has released the Homeowners Guide to Success to help struggling homeowners and ...

Consumer complaints overall continued their downward trajectory in the fourth quarter, but it was a different story when it came to areas such as student loans and credit reports, both of which shot upwards on an annual basis. Overall, total gripes from end users of the financial system fell 24.1 percent year over year and 23.1 percent from the third quarter of 2017 to the fourth. But criticisms about student loans surged 109.9 percent on an annual basis, despite a drop of 30.1 percent from 3Q17 to 4Q17. Credit reports were similarly slammed, with a 99.8 percent leap in complaints year over year, a 32.2 percent fall off quarter to quarter notwithstanding. On the other hand [includes exclusive data chart] ...

Ginnie Mae has issued expanded guidelines to protect veterans and investors from harmful loan churning and rapid prepayments in mortgage-backed securities. The changes, along with additional measures under consideration by a joint Ginnie Mae/VA refinance task force, are aimed at ensuring continued strength and liquidity of the Ginnie Mae MBS program, said Michael Bright, the agency’s acting president. The latest guidelines expand on an initial measure Ginnie implemented requiring six-months of seasoning of VA loans before they can be refinanced and delivered into Ginnie MBS pools. However, some lenders have found ways around the measure and have continued their questionable lending practices, said Bright during recent testimony before a House Financial Services subcommittee. Churning is both illegal and unethical because it preys on unsuspecting borrowers, who are pressured by ...

Congress on Thursday passed a stopgap-spending bill to prevent a potential government shutdown and to give lawmakers time to negotiate crucial issues. The House voted 235-193 to pass the measure. A short time later, the Senate quickly approved it 81-14. The temporary spending bill will keep the government running through Dec. 22. The continuing resolution or CR, that has kept the government open would have expired on Dec. 8. Both the House and Senate are scheduled to adjourn on Dec. 15. Congress will need to pass a final appropriations bill or another continuing resolution to keep the government operating after Dec. 22. Despite differences over tax reform, FY 2018 budget, immigration, health care and other issues, lawmakers do not want a shutdown, mortgage industry sources said. Republicans, in particular, hope to enact their $1.5 trillion tax package by Christmas. On the other hand, ...

The CFPB and VA recently issued their first WARNO, or “warning order,” to members of the U.S. armed forces and veterans with VA home loans, urging them to stay on their toes and avoid deceptive mortgage refinance offers. “If you have a VA home loan, then there is a good chance that you have already come into contact with unsolicited offers to refinance your mortgage that appear official and may sound too good to be true,” the two agencies said. Many of these solicitations promise extremely low interest rates, thousands of dollars in cash back, the ability to skip mortgage payments, and no out-of-pocket costs or waiting period. “Don’t be fooled,” the CFPB and VA said. “Before responding to any ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have issued a joint warning to servicemembers and veterans about VA refinancing offers that sound too good to be true. There is a good chance that borrowers with a VA loan have already received unsolicited offers to refinance their mortgages even just months after closing, the agencies said in their first “warning order” (WARNO). Many of these refi solicitations promise extremely low rates, thousands of dollars in cash back, skipped mortgage payments, no out-of-pocket costs and no waiting period, the agencies noted. The VA and the CFPB said lenders offering VA refinances may use aggressive and potentially misleading advertising and sales tactics. “Lenders may advertise a rate just to get you to respond or you may receive a VA mortgage refi offer that provides limited benefit to you while adding thousands of dollars to your loan balance,” the agencies warned. Even though the VA prohibits a lender from advertising skip payments on ...

A former FHA commissioner has recommended raising the agency’s capital reserve ratio to 3 percent, to make FHA stronger and more resilient. Carol Galante, who served two years as FHA commissioner and assistant secretary for housing in the second term of the Obama administration, laid out her proposal along with other recommendations in a paper that she co-authored. Housing-finance reform without a retooled FHA could threaten families’ access to homeownership and increase risk to taxpayers, contrary to the goals of reform, said Galante, currently the faculty director of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at University of California Berkeley. In her paper, Mission Critical: Retooling FHA to Meet America’s Housing Needs, Galante spelled out the changes necessary to help FHA perform its complementary and countercyclical role in the nation’s housing markets. Galante called for ...

Ginnie Mae called on issuers to ensure that the data they submit are accurate following the discovery of erroneous payment reports. The agency said it has noticed discrepancies in the reporting of the first payment date on loan modifications in violation of Ginnie guidelines. Specifically, the first payment date some issuers reported as part of the loan-delivery data did not match the date submitted for the same mortgage loan as part of issuers’ monthly report of pool and loan data. Ginnie blamed the errors either on loans set up incorrectly for servicing or faulty data issuers had reported to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Guidance issued by Ginnie on Nov. 14 reminded issuers to report the first scheduled payment date of the re-amortized loan when reporting the first payment date for modified mortgages through either the GinnieNET or the Reporting and Feedback System. The date ...

FHA lenders think the new Loan Review System is a “modern and streamlined system” that is less user-friendly than Neighborhood Watch, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. In a letter to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the MBA called on the FHA to continue its ongoing discussion with lenders and other industry stakeholders on how the improve the LRS and its response timelines. Implemented last May, the LRS is an electronic platform for monitoring and reviewing the quality of single-family mortgages that FHA has insured. It replaced the post-endorsement technical review performed by the FHA Connection/Underwriting Review System (URS), review functions for post-closing test cases submitted by direct endorsement lenders, and lender self-reporting functions in Neighborhood Watch. The LRS also includes a defect taxonomy, which features a list of ...