Wall Street Journal, Oct. 4, 2015–Davidson, Kate
It’s a favorite lament of community banks: The 2010 Dodd-Frank law is squeezing small financial firms and crimping access to credit for Main Street, all in the name of protecting the country from another financial crisis. A look at the data shows the reality is more complicated.
24/7 Wall Street, Oct. 5, 2015–Lange, Chris
Though real estate investment trusts have been a popular vehicle for investments in the past, they have suffered over the past year. At current levels, Credit Suisse sees mortgage-based REITs as an attractive investment opportunity, based on stabilized book values and earnings outlooks.
HousingWire, Oct. 5, 2015
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday that it charged Home Loan Servicing Solutions for making “material misstatements” about its relationship with Ocwen Financial as well as misstating its net income on several occasions.
Bloomberg, Sept. 25, 2015–Mulholland, Sarah
Real estate investment trusts–companies that own properties such as luxury hotels, office towers and shopping malls — are trading at an almost 15 percent discount to what investors would pay for buildings individually, according to Green Street Advisors LLC. The gap, the biggest in five years, has been growing since May, pushing the odds of REIT buyouts to the highest since 2006.
OC Register (Calif.), Sept. 25, 2015–Lazerson, Jeff
If you are buying or refinancing, you need to know how to get it right when it comes to the mortgage settlement process overhaul that starts Oct. 3.
National Mortgage News, Sept. 25, 2015–Finkelstein, Brad
Lenders that allow borrowers to shop for third-party settlement services face new liability, as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s integrated mortgage disclosure rules will let borrowers sue over problems with vendor lists.
Reuters, Sept. 24, 2015–Jones, Huw Global regulators meet in London on Friday to agree a rule on stopping banks being “too big to fail” by requiring them to hold enough equity capital and bonds to avoid taxpayers being called on in a crisis.
Forbes, Sept. 24, 2015–Team, Trefis
The country’s largest banks have been wary of adding mortgages not originated by them to their balance sheets, with the banks reporting another sequential reduction in their third-party mortgage servicing portfolios in Q2 2015.
Reuters, Sept. 24, 2015–Varadhan, Sudarshan
Mortgage servicer Ocwen Financial Corp said it would cut 300 jobs, about 10 percent of its U.S. workforce, in Waterloo, Iowa to save costs.
Sept. 23, 2015–Team, Trefis
The mortgage industry witnessed a sizable uptick in activity over the second quarter of the year, with total origination volumes reaching the highest level in the last two years. In fact, $225 billion in fresh mortgages were originated over the period – making it the best quarter in this regard since Q4 2007.
