Since 2008, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has drastically increased its use of the False Claims Act (FCA) to go after what say are bad actors in FHA mortgage lending. Since 2009, they have collected fines and penalties totaling more than $7 billion. That ain’t chump change. Many banks discontinued making FHA loans and some nonbank lenders became increasingly more…
Up until now, the elimination of the mortgage interest deduction has been considered off limits when discussing tax reforms. The third rail, don’t touch it, but that has changed. Elimination is a real possibility now on the table. In fact, according to Gary Cohn, National Economic Council Director, almost everything, including the mortgage interest deduction, is in play when it…
As I mentioned in a previous post, FHFA is still considering adding a question to the new Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA). The question would ask the applicant to indicate their ‘preferred language.’ The industry fears that this may open up a whole new regulatory can of worms. FHFA believes knowing this information will aid the lender and, ultimately, the…
Let’s take a look at some recent headlines in the mortgage industry news: Bipartisan Senate Bill would force Fannie & Freddie to think outside FICO FHFA’s Watt: No Change in GSE credit scoring model until 2019 Freddie expects to double low down payment mortgage volume in ‘17 If you take the time to read these articles, you will find…
Could the gains we made on loan quality and compliance over the past few years be slipping away? I sure hope not. Lenders worked too hard. This could be the case. According to the First American Loan Application Defect Index, their last reporting period showed its 7th straight month of defect increases. The index measures the frequency of defects, fraud,…
Retail mortgage lenders are constantly looking for technology to find better ways to streamline their methods to take loan applications, gather loan information, approve and close loans. This helps minimize expenses so they can keep prices down to better compete in this highly competitive market. But what about the companies that buy their loans? Known as Correspondent Lenders or Loan…
