Wall Street Journal, Apr. 5, 2017–Ben Eisen; Min Zeng (subscription)The Federal Reserve has been buying up fewer mortgage bonds in recent months thanks to a flameout of the American refinancing boom, one factor that economists say is likely to help shape Fed officials’ thinking as they consider shrinking their giant bond portfolio.
Category: Top National News
Hensarling to CFPB’s Cordray: You Deserve to Be Fired Immediately
HousingWire, Apr. 5, 2017–Ben LaneOn Wednesday, Richard Cordray, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, appeared before the House Financial Services Committee for his twice-a-year Molotov cocktail of compliments and insults from the committee’s Democrats and Republicans.
Empty Seats at Regulators Hold Back Trump Bid to Undo Dodd-Frank
Bloomberg, Apr. 5, 2017–Benjamin Bain; Robert SchmidtPresident Donald Trump’s push to roll back Wall Street regulations is being held up by his inability to fill open seats at the two main agencies charged with overseeing the financial industry.
HECM Endorsements Jump to 19-Month High
Mortgage Daily, Apr. 5, 2017Federally insured reverse mortgage production jumped to the highest level since the summer of 2015 despite a drop in the number of originators.
White House: More Obama Regulation Rollbacks Coming
Reuters, Apr. 5, 2017–Eric WalshU.S. President Donald Trump hopes to sign “several more” measures into law before the end of April to roll back Obama-era regulations under the time-limited Congressional Review Act, a White House official said on Wednesday.
Congress Takes on ‘Predatory’ PACE Loans
HousingWire, Apr. 6, 2017–Ben LaneThe bipartisan House and Senate bills received support from both the Mortgage Bankers Association and the California Association of Realtors.
Delinquency Up on HELs, Soars on Mobile Home Loans
Mortgage Daily, Apr. 6, 2017Past-due payments rose on three-out-of-four housing-related consumer loan types at banks–with mobile-home loan delinquency exploding.
Court Upholds $500,000 Award to Overland Woman from Mortgage Services Company
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Apr. 6, 2017–Robert PatrickA federal appeals court upheld a jury award of $500,000 to an Overland woman, saying that jurors had “ample evidence” to find that her mortgage services company, Nationstar Mortgae LLC, “acted with a reckless indifference to her rights.”
S&P: Mortgage-Backed Security Market Making a Comeback in 2017
HousingWire, Apr. 6, 2017–Ben LaneA new report from Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings shows that residential mortgage-backed securities-related issuance doubled in the first quarter compared to last year.
PACE Industry Responds to Congressional Efforts to Change Programs’s Rules
HousingWire, Apr. 7, 2017–Ben LaneTwo of the nation’s largest PACE lenders, Renovate America and Renew Financial, issued statements in response to the introduction of the PACE Act and the rhetoric surrounding it, stating that the bill is actually a Trojan horse designed to destroy the PACE industry.