The Federal Reserve Board this week got the ball rolling on another key mortgage regulatory initiative, expanding ability-to-pay consumer protection to most home loans – but left uncertain the key issue of how much legal comfort lenders can take in originating “qualified mortgages.” The proposed rule would amend...
Read More
Private mortgage insurers and other industry groups last week began what appears to be an uphill struggle to convince federal regulators to carve out a role for private MI in the non-agency securitization market. The controversial “qualified residential mortgage” definition recently proposed by federal regulators as part of a securitization rule on risk retention requires...
Read More
The consent decrees that federal regulators reached last week with 14 top mortgage servicers are a preview of the national servicing standards that bank regulators are developing for all lenders, but it’s unclear if the new standards will be applied to non-bank servicers, and upon what legal authority. Organization structure, staffing and technology will be...
Read More
Federal regulators took a long hard look at Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems in their review of problems in foreclosure servicing, and some say that in reaching a consent decree with the industry utility the agency may have given a backhanded endorsement of the MERS business model. MERS has been fighting...
Read More
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is moving ever closer toward its highly touted goal of crafting a new simplified mortgage disclosure form, with “prototypes” of a one-page document expected to be released next month. Elizabeth Warren, special advisor to the president tasked...
Read More
Fannie Mae recently clarified its ban of certain agreements between servicers and private mortgage insurers that are inconsistent with the government-sponsored enterprise’s policies and alter the terms of insurance coverage on mortgage loans. Unless the loans meet...
Read More
California is the biggest beneficiary of the federal government’s massive footprint in the single-family mortgage market, accounting for 19.9 percent of all loans securitized by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae during the first quarter of 2011. A new analysis based on the Inside Mortgage Finance MBS Database reveals...[Includes one data chart]
Read More
Last week, the New Democrat Coalition unveiled its housing reform priorities, which include winding down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as preserving access to affordable mortgage loans and requiring sound underwriting. The blueprint may not change...
Read More