HousingWire, Dec. 18, 2015–Lane, Ben
Nearly all of the mortgage servicers that are subject to the terms of the National Mortgage Settlement achieved complete compliance with the NMS’s servicing rules in the first half of 2015, according to a new report from Joseph Smith, the Monitor of the National Mortgage Settlement.
National Mortgage News, Dec. 21, 2015–Berry, Kate
While servicers are still dealing with high levels of problem loans in their portfolios, they are hopeful that rising rates will slow the outflow of loans they lose when borrowers refinance.
Washington Post, Dec. 21, 2015
Politics makes strange bedfellows; when you mix politics with money, it makes for unholy alliances. Case in point: the push by Wall Street hedge funds and low-income-housing advocates to “recapitalize and release” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the collapsed public-private mortgage-finance giants, which were nursed back to profitability with the help of $188 billion in taxpayer funds.
American Banker, Dec. 21, 2015–Berry, Kate
New consumer-disclosure requirements are doing more than delaying the closings of some home loans. Now the mortgage industry is sounding a bigger alarm, claiming some investors are refusing to buy certain loans once they close because of potential compliance failures. The bottleneck is happening when lenders immediately try to sell loans in the secondary market. The fear is that some lenders could get stuck with loans if investors refuse to buy them, causing potential liquidity problems, especially for independent mortgage banks.
New York Times, Dec. 11, 2015–Prevost, Lisa
For buyers willing to take on the role of landlord, multifamily properties can be one of the more affordable ways into pricey housing markets.
National Mortgage News, Dec. 11, 2015–Peters, Andy
Securitizations that involve commercial mortgages are increasingly dropping loans from their pools before the final transactions close, according to Fitch Ratings.
New York Times, Dec. 10, 2015–Moyer, Liz
Morgan Stanley will pay $225 million to settle lawsuits related to its sale of faulty mortgage-backed securities to five now-defunct corporate credit unions.
Entrepreneur, Dec. 10, 2015–Moran, Gwen
After 11 years in the mortgage business, Jason van den Brand couldn’t believe that a process so convoluted hadn’t been addressed with new technology. So he left his position at a brokerage firm and started Lenda. Dubbed “TurboTax for mortgages,” San Francisco-based Lenda (originally called GoRefi) lets borrowers apply for and complete a mortgage refi online.
HousingWire, Dec. 10, 2015–Lane, Ben
Despite Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray’s recent proclamation that the October implementation of the CFPB’s new TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosures rule was akin to the unfounded panic that surrounded Y2K, a new report from Moody’s Investors Service finds that TRID compliance violations are running rampant among newly originated loans.
On the Economy, Dec. 9, 2015–Bernstein, Jared
As a financial-markets-muckraker for the New York Times, Gretchen Morgenson provides an important and valuable service, especially when you consider the depth of muck in that sector in recent years. But there can be a fine line between raking muck and pointing fingers at legitimate activity.
