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New legislation will also allow banks and credit unions that have less than $10 billion in assets relief from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Qualified Mortgage rule, the committee members said. This will exempt certain loans from its requirements as long as these intuitions do not sell or securitize those loans.

The Federal Reserve reported in its Beige Book on Current Economic Conditions for May 2015 that residential real estate activity and construction has expanded in most districts since the previous Beige Book report in mid-April and that outlooks were "largely positive."

Cordray responded to the lawmakers' letter on June 3, stating the Bureau's desire for a smooth transition and that since the rule was published in November 2013, the CFPB has made it a point to "engage directly and intensively with financial institutions and vendors through a formal regulatory implementation project."

In May 2015, there were 69,286 total bankruptcy filings, down from May 2014's total of 85,711. May 2015's total also represented a month-over-month decline from April's total of 77,884, although there were two fewer filing days in May (20) than there were in April (22). Had filings continued at their May rate of 3,464 filings per day for two more days, May's total of filings would have been less than 2,000 fewer than April's.

Real estate and mortgage industry services provider Clayton Holdings has announced the hiring of Suzanne Singer as senior managing director of business development.

Judge Shira Sheindlin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Manhattan ruled HSBC Holdings must face three lawsuits from investors that claim the bank tried to hide defects in residential mortgage-backed securities from them before the crisis,

Home prices excluding distressed sales, which are normally discounted at 20 percent or more, actually appreciated at a lower rate month-over-month in April (2.3 percent) than home prices including distressed sales appreciated (2.7 percent).

For the government-sponsored enterprise guaranty rating, Fitch notes that the GSEs as a whole are the primary drivers of this rating’s unconditional guarantee of full and timely payment on the MBS that secures the bonds. Additionally, the performance of the underlying loans or MBS servicer is not factored into the rating on the bonds.

The latest NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index released in mid-May reports that about two-thirds of new and existing homes sold in the first quarter of 2015 were affordable to families that earned $65,800, which is the U.S. median yearly income, according to NAHB

Counsel's Corner is an ongoing series in which DS News talks with default servicing attorneys around the country about the most pressing issues facing the default servicing industry. This installment features Luke Sosnicki from Dykema's Los Angeles office, discussing RESPA’s new loss mitigation rules implemented by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in January 2014 and resulting litigation around those rules.