Friday, November 22, 2024

Industry Updates

CFPB Studying The Pros And Cons Of E-Closings

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is launching a pilot project to determine whether e-closings improve the mortgage process for homebuyers - particularly...

New Home Sales Down 14.5% In March

Spring home shoppers apparently remained in hibernation through March, as new home sales dropped 14.5%, compared to February, to reach their lowest level...

NAR: Existing-Home Sales Stagnant In March

Existing-home sales were basically stagnant in March, dropping 0.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.59 million - just slightly below the...

Lawsky Investigating Possible ‘Self-Dealing’ At Ocwen

Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of New York's Department of Financial Services, who in February put a hold on Ocwen Financial's bid to acquire mortgage-servicing...

Greenwich Estate Sells For Record $120 Million

One of the most expensive single-family residential properties in the U.S. sold last week for a whopping $120 million. Copper Beech Farm, a...

Bank Of America Settles With FGIC For $950 Million

Bank of America Corp. will pay $950 million to settle claims brought by mortgage insurer Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. (FGIC) and several groups...

Ellie Mae: Network Outage Was Not Due To Malicious Attack

Loan origination system (LOS) provider Ellie Mae reports that the recent network outage that affected its customers two weeks ago was not due...

AMCs Generally Receptive To Proposed ‘Minimum Requirements’ Rule

Six federal agencies including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are currently collecting public...

Fenway Summer Acquires Ethos Lending, Gears Up To Offer ‘Non-QM’ Loans

Fenway Summer, the advisory and venture firm launched last year by former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Deputy Director Raj Date, is gearing...

OIG Says CFPB Isn’t Following Its Own Examination Guidelines

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) needs to improve the efficiency of its program for supervision of banks and non-banks, the Office of...

Senate Finance Committee To Act On Mortgage Debt Forgiveness

The Senate Finance Committee is expected to mark up a bill on Thursday that would extend 45 tax provisions - including the Mortgage...

Waters Introduces Yet Another Housing Finance Reform Bill

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., the ranking Democratic member of the House Financial Services Committee, has introduced another proposal for housing finance reform. Like...

OIG: Property Preservation Companies Need Better Controls

Property preservation companies need better controls in place to ensure that the property inspection reports their sub-contractors submit are accurate, a recent audit...

RealtyTrac Launches Tax, Deed And Mortgage Data Licensing Business

Property data and analytics firm RealtyTrac has entered the tax, deed and mortgage data licensing business, making it the first new entrant in...

Carrington Mortgage Marches Boldly Into The ‘Nonprime’ Realm

Carrington Mortgage Services is moving into sub... er, um, 'nonprime' lending in a big way, having lowered its minimum credit requirement to a...

Tapering To Continue, But Fed Policy May Get Murkier

The Federal Reserve will continue to taper its bond-buying program, reducing its monthly purchase of assets by another $10 billion, as revealed by...

Settlement Banks All Settled Up; Monitoring Continues

Four of the U.S. banks subjected to the 2012 national mortgage settlement - Bank of America, Chase, Citi and Wells Fargo - have...

Flush With Cash From Google Capital, Auction.com To Boost Mobile, Search and Marketing Efforts

Google Capital, the search giant's newest funding vehicle, has invested $50 million in Auction.com, marking its first investment in an online real estate...

CFPB Seeking Cure For ‘Zombie Foreclosures’

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is reportedly investigating how banks are handling 'zombie foreclosures' - homes in foreclosure that have been vacated...

Congress Passes Bill Limiting Flood Insurance Hikes

The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a bipartisan measure that limits flood-insurance premium increases for property owners in coastal states. The Homeowner Flood...