Tag Archives: Compliance

Joseph A. Smith, the monitor overseeing servicers' compliance with last year's National Mortgage Settlement, filed reports on how the institutions involved with the settlement are dealing with the agreement. "My testing confirmed six fails in the first quarter of 2013 and one in the second quarter of 2013," Smith said in a statement issued Wednesday, adding that the "banks are all taking action to address the failures through detailed corrective action plans."

ProLender Solutions, Inc., a provider of paperless mortgage lending software, announced it has added flood, fraud, and Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS) services to its existing interface with QuestSoft's Compliance EAGLE platform.

Lenders Compliance Group Inc. (LCG) announced the appointment of Michael J. Wallace Esq. to the position of director of marketing compliance.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued on Wednesday a rule requiring lenders to use its new mortgage disclosure templates designed to streamline and simplify information for consumers. The forms will replace the standard disclosures given at the opening and closing stages of a loan. Testing the new templates against the old, the CFPB found borrowers using the updated forms showed a better understanding of their loan, demonstrating a 29 percent improvement in comprehension.

Republic Mortgage Insurance Corporation faces a $100,000 fine and enhanced supervision by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for allegedly offering illegal kickbacks to lenders in return for business referrals, according to an announcement from CFPB. "The CFPB believes that RMIC provided kickbacks to mortgage lenders by purchasing captive reinsurance that was essentially worthless but was designed to make a profit for the lenders," the bureau said in its announcement.

With the implementation date for the ability-to-repay and qualified mortgage (QM) guidelines creeping ever close, Fitch Ratings expects it will have to adapt its ratings process to work them in.

When it comes to next year's regulatory obstacles, CEOs and senior executives from the mortgage industry's biggest players agree on one thing: Education will be key to keeping business going. In a panel at the 2013 Realtors Conference and Expo, high-level names from Quicken Loans, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America discussed the qualified mortgage (QM) guidelines. While the initial implementation of these rules is expected to restrict lending in the short-term, panelists agreed that business should even out.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it has issued a proposed consent order in its enforcement action against Castle & Cooke Mortgage, LLC. Under the terms of the order, Castle & Cooke has agreed to pay more than $9.2 million in restitution to consumers and $4 million in civil penalties to settle allegations that two of its officers--president Matthew Pineda and SVP of capital markets Buck Hawkins--paid illegal bonuses to loan officers based on the interest rates of loans offered to borrowers.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued Wednesday an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on guidelines related to the debt collection industry. "For decades, many consumers have reported various unacceptable practices in the debt collection industry. Today's action will allow us to hear from the public as we consider what rules are needed," said Richard Cordray, director of the CFPB. The bureau also announced it will begin adding consumer complaints about debt collections to its public database.

Today's resilient capital market has the capacity to adapt readily to the pending ability-to-repay and qualified mortgage (QM) rules set to take effect January 10, 2014, according to a white paper CoreLogic released Friday. In its analysis, CoreLogic offers general support for the rules and suggests the industry will continue to prosper--albeit with more caution than in the years leading up to the housing crisis. "Making sure a borrower has the ability to repay is good business," the company said.