Mortgage lenders fear they will continue to incur billions of dollars in losses due to mortgage fraud unless the industry, federal and state regulators, and law enforcement agencies work together to resolve the problems that hamper access to and sharing of...
Read More
The Department of Housing and Urban Development suddenly this summer abandoned three rulemaking projects designed to strengthen the agency’s oversight of FHA lenders. None of the three projects, which were first added to HUD’s rulemaking pipeline back in... [Includes Agenda]
Read More
Since the release of the federal interagency guidance on nontraditional mortgage products, regulators are finding that lenders are not underwriting borrowers to fully-indexed and amortized rates. And the guidance’s inconsistent adoption is leading to...
Read More
In what appears to be an historic intrusion into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac business practices, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight this week instructed the two government-sponsored enterprises to bring their mortgage purchase programs into compliance with underwriting and marketing guidelines for nontraditional...
Read More
Federal regulators appear to be planning to order either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to stop “certain lending activities” that overstep the company’s charter. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is “developing one or more legal opinions regarding the...
Read More
The private mortgage insurance industry is expected to gain a noticeable, if perhaps temporary, boost in business, thanks to Congress’ last-minute enactment of mortgage insurance tax deductibility. Under the provision, enacted in the wee hours of...
Read More
Maybe the Teflon coating on the subprime and Alt A markets is finally beginning to wear a little thin, as both sectors have seen slower growth, tougher competition and shrinking margins in 2006. The subprime sector, in particular, appears... [Includes two charts]
Read More
The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will consider some contentious mortgage-related topics next year, but they are near the bottom of the incoming chairman’s agenda. Last week, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CT, unveiled his agenda for the committee...
Read More
Mortgage delinquency rates rose sharply in the third quarter, with most of the increase coming in less-severe categories of late payment, according to the IMF Large Servicer Delinquency Index. As a group the 21 large servicers in the current...[Includes one chart]
Read More