The Lede

Black Knight Financial Services, Jacksonville, Fla., said its First Look Mortgage Monitor showed foreclosure starts hit a nine-year low in November with fewer than 700,000 active foreclosures remaining in the pipeline.

MBA NewsLink recently posed questions to Mark McElroy, president and CEO of Pavaso, Plano, Texas, a provider of services for closings and the rest of the homeownership life cycle.

NASDAQ, Dec. 23, 2015 New consumer-disclosure requirements are doing more than delaying 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. Pete Mills, the Mortgage Bankers Association's senior vice president of residential policy, said lenders want the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to clarify whether "technical" errors can be fixed by lenders without incurring a penalty.

MinnPost, Dec. 23, 2015--Beal, Dave During the 2007-09 financial crisis, it was almost impossible to get a home loan without a guarantee from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Now, seven years after the federal government bailed them out, they are still the dominant players in home mortgage finance.

National Mortgage News, Dec. 23, 2015--Berry, Kate Freddie Mac is one-upping Fannie Mae by offering to retain some home loans that have defects but without requiring that mortgage lenders pay a fee.

HousingWire, Dec. 22, 2015--Lane, Ben Long the target of regulators and consumers due to its mortgage servicing practices, Ocwen Financial finds itself in a unique position in a new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: it is the only company in the top ten most-complained-about companies that saw its complaints drop over the same period last year.

Bloomberg, Dec. 22, 2015--Scully, Matt Standard & Poor's withdrew most of its ratings on a type of security built from bank debt, two months after an investor sought a court order to require more "accurate" grades.

HousingWire, Dec. 29, 2015--Swanson, Brena After a recent letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Mortgage Bankers Association released a response from CFPB Director Richard Cordray that should bring some much-needed clarity to the industry on the current expectations for lenders in implementing the new TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule.

MarketWatch, Dec. 31, 2015--Goldstein, Daniel The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau gave lenders a post-holiday present--telling anxious bankers that they wouldn't be held liable for most minor errors in loan processing and paperwork under the new "Know Before You Owe" rule.

Wall Street Journal, Dec. 29, 2015--Light, Joe Beginning in 2016, the two government-controlled housing giants will ramp up sales of a new type of security that will transfer most of the cost of defaults on all but their safest mortgages to private investors.

Los Angeles Times, Dec. 29, 2015--Koren, James Rufus Nearly a decade later, fallout from the housing crash continues to dog big banks, including San Francisco lending giant Wells Fargo, which is facing a new lawsuit from an investor that took huge losses on mortgage-backed securities that went bust.

National Mortgage News, Dec. 31, 2015--Witkowski, Rachel The Dodd-Frank Act is a burden on community banks and credit unions but regulators are struggling to quantify the costs, according to a report released Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office.

Boston Agent Magazine, Jan. 4, 2016--McClister, James Following the Oct. 3 implementation of the new disclosure rules, Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, compared the fears surrounding TRID to those inspired by Y2K. But after receiving a letter from the Mortgage Bankers Association, the CFPB responded in a letter of its own (addressed to MBA President and CEO David Stevens) this time with a much more reassuring message.

National Mortgage News, Jan. 4, 2015--Peters, Andy The delinquency rate on commercial mortgage-backed securities rose slightly in December, according to Trepp. The rate of U.S. commercial real estate loans embedded in CMBS that were delinquent rose 4 basis points in December to 5.17%, compared to November, Trepp said.