Mortgage

The Obama administration announced January 27 that it is making “important enhancements” to the Making Home Affordable Program, including the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), to expand the reach of the program to help additional...

Attorney General Eric Holder announced the formation of the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group on January 27. Holder called the Working Group, which will operate as part of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, “an...

Does the Fair Housing Act go beyond prohibiting disparate treatment and create a cause of action for disparate impact? That’s the key fair lending issue the U.S. Supreme Court will tackle in Manger v. Gallagher, which is scheduled for oral...

The U.S. Department of Justice ended the year with a fair lending bang. On December 21, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the largest residential fair lending settlement in the DOJ’s history. The $335 million settlement resolves...

The American Bankers Association has taken a stance against raising the loan limit on confirming mortgages eligible for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac backing.

On October 1, a temporary hike in the conforming-loan ceiling expired, and loan...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced November 3 that it has reached an agreement with Luxury Mortgage Corporation (LMC), a mortgage lender based in Stamford, Connecticut, settling accusations that the lender...

Independent foreclosure review — a requirement of the regulators’ enforcement actions against fourteen large mortgage servicers — is now underway. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced the start of the reviews on...

The Obama Administration is trying to re-energize its disappointing Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). When President Obama first unveiled the program back in 2009, he predicted it could help 7 million to 9 million underwater borrowers...

Date wasn’t the only one making news at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual conference. Protests organized by the “Stand Up Chicago” coalition made the real headlines. The coalition called for protesters to “come together for a...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced on September 28 that the Joint Initiative on Mortgage Servicing Compensation is seeking public comment on two alternative mortgage servicing compensation structures detailed in a discussion...

The 2010 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data released by bank regulators continued the “heavy reliance” on loans backed by Federal Housing Administration insurance that began with the emergence of the current mortgage market difficulties....

The next several weeks will see the roll out of a “robust, transparent, and accessible complaint process” that will give borrowers the opportunity to request an independent foreclosure review, Acting Comptroller of the Currency John Walsh...

In a display of bipartisanship that is increasingly rare in Washington these days, Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) are cosponsoring legislation to encourage the refinancing and restructuring of mortgage loans owned by...

For a variety of reasons, the housing market is not working as it should, Federal Reserve Board Governor Elizabeth Duke told a recent housing-policy forum. Low home prices are not stimulating sales and even record-low interest rates are not...

What are we going to do with all the single-family homes that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the “Enterprises”) carry as real estate owned (REO)? The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which serves as both conservator and regulator for...

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced, on August 9, that H&R Block subsidiary Option One Mortgage Corp. has agreed to settle alleged predatory lending and discriminatory lending charges.

The attorney general’s...

Many community bankers oppose the Credit Risk Retention Rule that the bank and GSE regulators have proposed to implement mortgage-market reforms mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act. The current proposal would require lenders to retain a portion of the...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) filed suit, on July 27, alleging UBS Americas, Inc., violated the federal securities laws in the sale of residential private-label mortgage-backed securities (MBS) to the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a new “Mortgage Acts and Practices — Advertising Rule” on July 19. The new rule, which was issued in response to the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009, as clarified by the Credit CARD Act of 2009,...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on July 15 that it will not enforce most provisions of its Mortgage Assistance Relief Services (MARS) Rule against real estate brokers and their agents who assist financially distressed consumers in...