The Bush administration this week offered a mild endorsement for the growing mortgage purchase programs sponsored by the Federal Home Loan Banks, but declined to push for new capabilities that could accelerate growth. Officials from Treasury and the Federal Housing Finance Board told lawmakers this week that they endorse the FHLBank Mortgage Partnership Finance, or MPF, and Mortgage Purchase Program, or MPP. But in
Read More
Mortgage delinquency rates rose across the board during the second quarter, as a sluggish economic recovery checkered with slumping employment and rising bankruptcies ate away at loan performance indicators. The Large Servicer Delinquency Index compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance rose from 4.16 percent in the first quarter of this year to 4.27 percent. Based on nearly $4 trillion of mortgages serviced by
Read More
Federal anti-tying rules could restrict banks’ ability to package a single, fixed-cost bundle of closing services as proposed by the Bush administration in a forthcoming rule streamlining the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. In a proposed guidance and interpretation of the anti-tying provisions of the Bank Holding Company Act, the Federal Reserve Board acknowledged that banks could find it difficult
Read More
The Federal Trade Commission this week restated its support for Congressional efforts to strengthen consumer protections under the Fair Credit Reporting Act – as well as ways to improve the fast-moving legislation, which would extend national credit reporting standards that are set to expire in just a few months.
Read More
The legislative push to overhaul the government’s oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shifted into high gear this week as the chairmen of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and the House Financial Services Committee rushed to embrace a set of sweeping changes proposed by the Bush administration.
Read More
Most large mortgage lenders have clear favorites when it comes to selling conforming loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but a surprising number of these companies keep irons in both secondary market campfires.
Read More
Although the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight might not have the most solid legal standing for its efforts to alter the termination terms of two top Freddie Mac executives, legal sources said that will not prevent the regulator from imposing its decision.
Read More
Efforts to create a government-insured mortgage product for borrowers with bad credit got new life last week when the Senate Appropriations Committee included language authorizing the program in a key funding bill. The provision that would allow the FHA to go forward with its plan to create a product for borrowers currently served by the subprime market is tucked inside S. 1584, a 170-page
Read More