Tag Archives: Compliance

Persisting tight lending standards may have cost the housing market about 18,700 new home sales in the last six months, according to a survey conducted by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). A large majority—83 percent—of homebuilders surveyed stated they lost sales because potential buyers did not qualify for mortgage loans. The average builder lost nearly 10 percent of sales for this reason, according to the NAHB survey.

A recurring theme during many of the six labs at the Five Star Conference last week was compliance and how it has changed the mortgage industry in the last few years. Laurie Maggiano, program manager for servicing and secondary markets at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), was on hand to discuss the world of mortgage servicing statutes for the "CFPB's National Servicing Standards—Update Session" section of the conference's Compliance Lab.

Experts gathered in Dallas earlier this week at the annual Five Star Conference and Expo to discuss the most pressing issues facing servicers—and "compliance" was the word of the day.

Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee earlier in the week, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry said the financial condition of banks has improved since the financial crash—but he believes that supervisors need to "remain vigilant."

In the latest mortgage industry team-up, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services and Wipro Gallagher Solutions have brought their products together to help simplify compliance document complexity for lenders pushing to adhere to new disclosure rules set to go into effect next year.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced this week that it has published final guidelines for large financial institutions regarding the strengthening of governance and risk management practices for those institutions. Covered institutions will now be required to control and manage risk-taking activities by following a written risk governance framework under the new guidelines, OCC announced.

Directed by Steven Frie, director of structured finance at Standard & Poor's Rating Services, the 2014 Five Star Conference Compliance Lab will feature a panel of experts tackling some of the most pressing issues of the day, speaking on topics ranging from the impact of the qualified mortgage (QM) and qualified residential mortgage (QRM) guidelines; how to balance state, local, and federal regulations; and the cost and consequences of compliance.

In a bulletin issued Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warned mortgage servicers to pay close attention to the new "common-sense" mortgaging rules implemented by the bureau in January 2014, aimed at protecting consumers from being harmed during loan transfers.

Results released in QuestSoft's latest annual survey of lenders shows the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) continues to rank high on the list of worries gnawing away at businesses. "Compared to last year's survey, lenders appear more weary than ever of CFPB's rules, as non-CFPB issues are seen as increasingly lower priorities," said Leonard Ryan, founder and president of QuestSoft.

According to examination results released Wednesday by the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight, five of the six banks met or exceeded expectations across 29 different compliance metrics in the third and fourth quarters of 2013. Not faring as well was Green Tree, a wholly owned subsidiary of Walter Investment Management Corp., which has part of ResCap's servicing portfolio.