Servicing Newslinks Archive

“The Bureau is committed to the financial well-being of America’s service members. This commitment includes ensuring that lenders subject to our jurisdiction comply with the Military Lending Act so our service members and their families are provided with the protections of that law. That’s why I have asked Congress to explicitly grant the Bureau authority to conduct examinations specifically intended to review compliance with the MLA. The requested authority would complement the work the Bureau currently does to enforce the MLA.” –Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathy Kraninger.

“The outlook for 2019 is certainly both cloudier and blurrier than the outlook a year ago. Housing wealth may have touched new highs this year, but home value gains don’t translate into dollars in the bank account unless homeowners opt to sell or borrow against their home and, in contrast to previous housing booms, many Americans have been more reluctant in recent years to spend against their home’s worth.”–Zillow Senior Economist Aaron Terrazas.

“Favorable commercial real estate fundamentals and strong lender demand pulled commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding to a new high. Multifamily mortgage debt continues to lead the pack, accounting for more than half of the total increase, and Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA remain the key drivers of multifamily mortgage growth.”–MBA Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Research Jamie Woodwell.

“Kathy Kraninger an intelligent, experienced administrator who has worked on a broad range of complex, high-profile issues over the course of her career. We look forward to working with her and anticipate she will continue the Bureau’s efforts to protect consumers by providing financial institutions clear and understandable regulations accompanied by appropriate compliance and implementation requirements.”–MBA President and CEO Robert Broeksmit, CMB, on Senate approval of Kathy Kraninger as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“Profitability continues to be hindered by high costs and low productivity. We expect fixed costs to remain elevated and competitive pressures will continue to hamper production revenues in the winter months. Therefore, mortgage banker profitability will likely remain challenged.”–MBA Vice President of Industry Analysis Marina Walsh.

“MBA believes that the requirements of the CECL standard, which is effective for SEC registrants in 2020, and for all other companies in 2021, will adversely impact the availability, structure and price of credit, with a larger proportion of such impact landing on longer-term loans, such as 30-year single-family residential mortgages, commercial and multifamily mortgages, student and business loans.”–MBA President and CEO Robert Broeksmit, CMB, in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to delay a credit loss accounting standard implementation pending a quantitative impact study.

“Reverse mortgages are an important financial tool that, if used properly, can allow the growing number of retirees to age in place. MBA applauds the recent steps FHA has taken to stabilize and improve the HECM program, and policymakers should continue considering ways to insulate the forward program from the volatility in the reverse program.”–MBA President and CEO Robert Broeksmit, CMB, on the FHA 2018 actuarial report.

“Despite the small uptick this quarter, the healthy economy is overall supporting low mortgage delinquencies and foreclosure inventories. Unemployment is at its lowest levels since 1969, wages have grown 3.1 percent year-over-year–the biggest jump in almost a decade–and job growth is averaging over 212,000 jobs per month thus far.”–MBA Vice President of Industry Analysis Marina Walsh.

“It now takes 23.6 percent of the median income to make monthly payments on the average-priced home, making housing the least affordable it’s been in nearly a decade. While still better than the 1995-2003 average of 25.1 percent, we’re close to a tipping point.”–Ben Graboske, executive vice president of Black Knight’s Data & Analytics division.

“A streamlined process could be beneficial to both lenders and RHS. However, we are concerned that this proposal, as drafted, will result in increased losses for lenders on properties that take a significant time to liquidate following foreclosure sale. Whether or not this concern is a reality depends largely in part on the valuation model employed. Unfortunately, this proposal does not provide enough detail on the valuation model to assuage these concerns.”–MBA Senior Vice President for Public Policy and Industry Relations Stephen O’Connor, an an MBA letter to the Rural Housing Service on its proposed rule to revised its loss-claim and loss-mitigation procedures.