The Mortgagee Review Board’s improvement of its processes and use of administrative actions has greatly eased its backlog of lender recertification cases, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s internal watchdog. An audit by HUD’s inspector general found a vastly improved enforcement of MRB mandates and application of penalties to lenders compared to previous findings. An analysis of the board’s FY 2016 activities found, among other things, that 19 lenders with the same violation received the same penalty. The report attributed the change to the board’s decision to assign staff to implement recommendations in the IG’s evaluation report in May 2009. The 2009 audit raised concerns about the speed of the MRB process, the number of cases on which the board rules, and the magnitude of penalties it levies. The MRB rules on cases against FHA lenders where there ...