American consumers have their own plan for winding down the government-sponsored enterprises: they’re refinancing less and showing little interest in borrowing to buy a new home. New business volume at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plummeted by 21.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010 to... [Includes three data charts]
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New restrictions on loan originator compensation are now in effect nationwide after a federal appeals court this week lifted a temporary stay of the Federal Reserve Board’s final rule on loan originator compensation. In a one-page decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that...
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Mortgage lenders and other industry groups are expected to lobby federal regulators to abandon a controversial “premium capture account” provision that the agencies incorporated into the new risk-retention proposed rule released last week. The regulators’ newly proposed definition of...
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House Republicans this week pushed through a package of eight bills generally designed to bolster oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and clamp down on their activities while in conservatorship, but it took some doing. The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee labored in...
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Freddie Mac late last week reminded lenders that it prohibits arrangements where lenders compensate mortgage insurers for losses on certain Freddie-owned loans, in exchange for the insurers agreeing not to rescind coverage of those loans. The government-sponsored enterprise drew attention to...
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Banks and credit unions lined up this week in support of Republican legislative proposals to have a commission of experts, rather than a single director, lead the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection in overseeing consumer credit products and services. Testifying before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, industry trade groups said...
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The once-booming business of captive mortgage reinsurance operations sponsored by major mortgage lenders continued to decline in 2010, according to a new analysis of private mortgage insurer regulatory filings by Inside Mortgage Trends, an affiliated newsletter. Private MIs ceded some... [Includes one data chart]
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The country’s top mortgage servicers are reportedly close to signing agreements with federal banking regulators to settle allegations of business improprieties and bad servicing practices without having to pay fines. Neither the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the lead agency in talks with...
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Politics, not legislation, is going to be the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s biggest hurdle come this summer when it goes into action, some experts said at a symposium sponsored this week by Women in Housing and Finance. “In terms of political implications of what’s going on in the Hill, obviously it could affect...
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