ABC News, Apr. 15, 2016
Freedom Mortgage agreed to pay the U.S. government $113 million to settle allegations that it failed to comply with federal rules.
Category: Top National News
Kashkari Lays Out New Reasons Why Nation’s Biggest Banks Pose Risks to Taxpayers
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Apr. 18, 2016–Belz, Adam
Financial reform has moved in the right direction, but taxpayers will still likely be on the hook for the future failure of one of the nation’s largest banks, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis said Monday.
Shelby Requests Federal Watchdogs Probe FHFA, Fannie, Freddie
Morning Consult, Apr. 18, 2016–Rainey, Ryan
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby on Monday requested the Government Accountability Office and Congressional Budget Office look into practices at the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the government-sponsored enterprises it oversees.
How Much Will Principal Reduction Affect Servicers?
DSNews, Apr. 18, 2016–Honea, Brian
The controversial principal reduction program announced by the Federal Housing Finance Agency last week is expected to moderately increase expenses for mortgage servicers who handle delinquent Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans, but overall the impact of the program on servicers is expected to be minimal, according to a report from Fitch Ratings on Monday.
Stop Overcharging FHA Borrowers to Subsidize Reverse Mortgage Risks
National Mortgage News, Apr. 18, 2016–Chappelle, Brian
Chappelle, founding partner of Potomac Partners, said first-time homebuyers face enough challenges to qualify for a mortgage in today’s housing market without having to subsidize the reverse mortgage program.
Is This the Secret to Housing Reform?
National Mortgage News, Apr. 8, 2016–Collins, Brian
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s experiments with selling credit risk to investors are a critical element of new plan to merge the two entities and move them out of conservatorship, but what form so-called credit risk transfers take could make a big difference.
Collingwood Group Chairman Calls Out ‘Regulatory Jihad’ on Mortgage Lenders
HousingWire, Apr. 8, 2016–Lane, Ben
Count Tim Rood, chairman of The Collingwood Group, among those who think the regulatory environment is smothering mortgage lenders.
Late Mortgage Payments Dip to Post-Recession Low
MarketWatch, Apr. 7, 2016–Riquier, Andrea
Americans are becoming more and more credit-worthy, especially when it comes to home equity.
J.P. Morgan: We’re Too Big Not to Succeed
Wall Street Journal, Apr. 7, 2016–Glazer, Emily
In a proxy released Thursday morning, J.P. Morgan pushed back against a shareholder proposal for a bank breakup, pointing to its business synergies, benefits of scale and value to clients.
A More Promising Road to Reform
Urban Institute, Apr. 7, 2016–Zandi, Mark
In today’s housing finance system, two behemoth institutions, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, control most of the core infrastructure of the secondary market and take on most of its credit risk. While in many ways this system has served the nation well by providing a broad range of borrowers access to credit and a level playing field for lenders of all sizes, our reliance on this duopoly created perverse incentives that ultimately led to too much risk taking, forcing taxpayers to shoulder the resulting cost.