Mortgage loan brokers, correspondents and loan originators (“Originators”) who survived (or, in many cases, are still dealing with) the onslaught of “repurchase/indemnification” claims asserted by loan aggregators and...more
Concerned about “increasing uncertainty surrounding regulatory oversight of these types of arrangements,” Wells Fargo is ending all of its roughly 200 mortgage marketing services and desk rental agreements with builders and...more
8/11/2015
/ Banking Sector ,
Banks ,
Borrowers ,
Construction Industry ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Lenders ,
Financial Institutions ,
Home Buyer ,
HUD ,
Kickbacks ,
Lenders ,
Loans ,
Mortgage Servicers ,
Mortgages ,
Real Estate Brokers ,
Real Estate Market ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
RESPA ,
Wells Fargo
In the aftermath of the financial crisis, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac aggressively demanded Wall Street and big bank aggregators (“aggregators”) repurchase millions of defaulted and distressed loans, due to purported breaches...more
6/12/2015
/ Banking Crisis ,
Banking Sector ,
Citibank ,
Fannie Mae ,
Freddie Mac ,
GSE ,
Mortgage Lenders ,
Mortgage Loan Aggregators ,
Mortgage Loan Originators ,
Mortgages ,
Repurchases ,
Settlement Agreements
Former Moody’s analyst, Ilya Kolchinsky, has accused the credit rating powerhouse of overstating its ratings for countless toxic mortgage-backed securities that caused the financial meltdown in 2008, misleading investors and...more
We previously posted about ACE Securities Corp. v. DB Structured Products, Inc., 977 N.Y.S.2d 229, 231 (N.Y.A.D. 1st Dept. Dec. 19, 2013), which is a critical ruling out of New York’s intermediate state appellate court. In...more
Earlier this month, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley initiated an action against Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Finance Agency for allegedly illegally impeding non-profit foreclosure buyback...more
As we continue to distance ourselves from the advent of the real estate downturn, residential mortgage loan lenders seem to be increasingly willing to explore ways to loan money outside of the “qualified mortgage” arena. For...more
On Friday, May 30, 2014, asserting that “[i]t is axiomatic that banks should not make discriminatory loans”, the City of Los Angeles filed a two-count complaint against JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Federal Court for the Central...more
6/4/2014
/ Banks ,
City of Los Angeles ,
Discrimination ,
Fair Housing Act (FHA) ,
Fair Lending ,
JPMorgan Chase ,
Mortgages ,
Popular ,
Predatory Lending ,
Property Tax ,
Restitution
Early last week, recently-appointed director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Melvin L. Watt, announced plans to keep GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac going strong. This new strategy is in stark contrast to the...more
Last Friday, a former Wells Fargo branch manager, sales manager and loan officer, Robert Serao, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The charge stems from Serao’s involvement in a $40.8 million mortgage fraud...more
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have continued to spend billions of dollars on questionable mortgage loans despite previous alerts to potential issues with their appraisals, the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Office of Inspector...more
From my work defending mortgage loan originators, including many homebuilder captives, against mortgage repurchase and indemnification claims, as well in my role as an editor of Bilzin Sumberg’s Mortgage Crisis Watch, I have...more
The days of exotic mortgage programs like “no doc” and balloon loans may be over.
Earlier this month, the long awaited (and by many lenders and experts, dreaded), lending restrictions codified in the Dodd Frank Act...more
Last Friday, the Federal Housing Administration announced that it will reduce the maximum threshold for the high-price mortgages it is willing to insure. This change was called for by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of...more
JPMorgan Chase and Assurant Inc. recently agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit initiated in June 2012 for $300 million brought by a class of 1.3 million homeowners nationwide who claimed that they were overcharged for...more
As of June 30 of this year, Wells Fargo & Co., this nation’s largest mortgage lender, had received demands to repurchase $1.4 Billion out of the $343 billion of residential-mortgage loans Wells Fargo sold to Freddie Mac and...more
Richmond, California’s leaders approved a controversial plan earlier this month to become the first municipality in the nation to use eminent domain to rid itself of underwater mortgages. The plan was approved by the Richmond...more
It should be no surprise that the private mortgage insurance industry was nearly decimated in the wake of the housing crisis. During that tumultuous time, the private mortgage insurers that survived lost a combined $20...more
The civil division of the Justice Department has preliminarily concluded that JPMorgan broke federal laws in connection with its sale from 2005 to 2007 of subprime and Alt-A residential mortgage securities, and the bank is...more
In 2011, in an effort designed to prevent a repeat of the often times shoddy underwriting practices that were pervasive during the years leading up to the current mortgage crisis, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and...more
The Future of Housing Reform -
A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators recently proposed a bill that would replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the next 5 years....more
$968 Million Settlement -
During the aftermath of the financial crisis, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been aggressively demanding that Wall Street and big bank aggregators repurchase millions of defaulted and...more
During the aftermath of the financial crisis, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been aggressively demanding that Wall Street and big bank aggregators repurchase millions of defaulted and distressed loans for alleged breaches of...more
Any follower of this blog or the mortgage crisis at large will — sadly — not be surprised by the seemingly never-ending news of foreclosure misdeeds by the nation’s biggest banks. Recent news reveals a particularly...more
In his State of the Union Address on February 12, 2013, President Obama called on Congress to make it easier for families to refinance their mortgages. Specifically, the President urged Congress to pass refinancing...more