By: Krista Cooley, Rebecca Lobenherz
The National Servicing Standards, outlined in the March 2012 Global Foreclosure Settlement, are difficult to reconcile with the already stringent servicing requirements in place for the Federal Housing Administration’s (“FHA”) single family loan insurance program.
By: Steven M. Kaplan, Rebecca Lobenherz
Force-placing insurance could be a hazardous practice if not done appropriately. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) has made force-placed insurance a main focus of its desired mortgage servicing reforms and new rules on the issue are expected to be released by the CFPB as soon as this week.
By: Nanci L. Weissgold, Morey E. Barnes Yost
Buried deep in the 40-plus pages of “Servicing Standards” that are part of the recently announced global foreclosure settlement agreement (the “Agreement”) are two bullets on a topic that could impact thousands: tenants’ rights.
By: Stephanie C. Robinson, Kerri M. Smith
At what point is it appropriate after a borrower defaults to initiate foreclosure proceedings? As soon as the borrower defaults?
Given the reported violations of the provisions of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (“SCRA”) by some servicers, and the attendant enforcement and civil actions against those servicers, state and federal regulators clearly felt compelled to impose significant SCRA-related requirements on the nation’s five largest residential mortgage loan servicers (the “Servicers”) in the recent global settlement agreements (the “Agreements”) entered into between those regulators and Servicers, described here.
By: David A. Tallman
The alleged failure of servicers to adequately supervise the activities of their foreclosure and loss mitigation vendors and other service providers is one of the central criticisms levelled by federal and state regulators against residential mortgage servicers.
By: Kristie D. Kully
The servicing standards imposed on the five largest mortgage loan servicers by the recent global settlement agreement with state and federal regulators, described here, continue to pile on the “SPOC” requirements.
In many financial service relationships, dissatisfied customers can solve ongoing customer service deficiencies by simply taking their business to a competing provider.
By: Nanci L. Weissgold, Morey E. Barnes Yost
As scrutiny of default servicing practices provided significant impetus for the recently announced global foreclosure settlement agreement (the “Agreement”), it is no surprise that the Agreement prescribes extensive standards to resolve issues with these practices.
By: András P. Teleki, Kathryn S. Williams
Residential mortgage lenders and originators (RMLOs — known as “mortgage companies” and “mortgage brokers” but not individual loan originators) now are subject to the Bank Secrecy Act’s (BSA) anti-money laundering regime pursuant to a long expected new regulation published in the Federal Register on February 14, 2012 by FinCEN, a part of Treasury that implements the U.S.’s anti-money laundering regime.
By: Eric J. Edwardson, Kerri M. Smith
In January, Treasury announced significantly enhanced payments to encourage investors to consider or expand principal reduction modifications under HAMP.
The Administration’s newly announced plan to provide low cost refinancings to underwater, current borrowers whose residential mortgage loans are not owned or securitized by the GSEs is high on hope and low on likelihood of success.
By: Andrew C. Glass, Gregory N. Blase, Roger L. Smerage
A Massachusetts federal court recently confirmed MERS’s ability to assign mortgages under Massachusetts law and approved MERS’s practices in doing so.
In Culhane v. Aurora Loan Services, — F. Supp. 2d —-, 2011 WL 5925525 (D. Mass. Nov. 28, 2011), a borrower sued her loan servicer to prevent foreclosure.
By: Nanci L. Weissgold and Morey E. Barnes Yost
It is no secret that the housing crisis is a drag on the economy for which there appears to be no quick and easy fix. President Obama’s recent announcement that his administration would revise the underutilized Home Affordable Refinance Program (“HARP”) in the hopes of assisting underwater borrowers was the latest federal effort to assist homeowners during the ongoing financial crisis.
The loan repurchase policies of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are one of the factors that have exacerbated the U.S. housing crisis and impeded economic recovery, according to two recent releases by notable federal government actors.
By: David A. Tallman
Adding to its already full plate, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (the “CFPB” or the “Bureau”) recently requested public comment on its review of the various consumer financial protection regulations it has inherited from other agencies.
By: Kerri M. Smith
Followers of Treasury’s HAMP program will need to update their shortcuts to the latest version of the HAMP Handbook, Version 3.4. Treasury issued the latest HAMP Handbook, the consolidated guidance related to HAMP for non-GSE mortgage loans, on December 15, 2011. Version 3.4 of the Handbook includes all of the prior Supplemental Directives, including those with effective dates after the publication of Version 3.3.
On December 1, 2011, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau began accepting mortgage complaints from consumers through the agency’s home page. This development follows the Bureau’s October announcement that it would be expanding the coverage of its consumer complaint portal to include products such as mortgages and student loans.
By: Jonathan D. Jaffe, Steven M. Kaplan, David I. Monteiro, David A. Tallman
The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (the "Bureau" or the "CFPB") was designed to provide a single, integrated federal approach to consumer financial protection.