News

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and prosecutors in 19 states have filed 189 legal actions against companies and individuals they say are carrying out loan modification scams and deceptively marketing foreclosure rescue services.

The number of mortgage servicers under contract to perform government-sanctioned loan modifications as part of the administration’s Making Home Affordable program has expanded to 27. The nation’s largest lenders – JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi, the Bank of America-Countrywide conglomerate, and GMAC – have agreed to provide mortgage modifications under the federal guidelines, as well as specialty subprime servicer Ocwen Financial and a host of other well-known mortgage companies, including several credit unions and a servicer out of Puerto Rico.

Subprime mortgage servicer Ocwen Financial Corporation announced Thursday that Steven B. Nesmith has joined the company as SVP and assistant general counsel for strategic and government initiatives. Nesmith was most recently a partner at Holland & Knight where he served in the affordable housing, financial services, and international trade practice areas.

Regulatory compliance professionals at community banks expect to spend a significant amount of their time meeting Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA) and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) requirements during the next 12 months, according to a recent survey by Minneapolis-based Wolters Kluwer Financial Services.

Dallas-based MRG Document Technologies (MRG) now offers mortgage servicers loan modification document packages that are compliant with the administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).

Nearly two million foreclosure filings were recorded during the first half of the year, according to the market research company RealtyTrac. One in every 84 homes in the United States has received at least one foreclosure filing, the company says.

The Des Moines, Iowa-based mortgage and real estate research firm iEmergent has updated its 2009 first-time homebuyer loan volume forecasts in light of the new federal tax credit. The company projects that home loans made to first-time buyers will tally 955,000 this year and generate $133 billion nationwide.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released its latest Foreclosure Prevention Report on Wednesday, detailing actions taken by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prevent foreclosures and keep people in their homes.

Long-term interest rates for home loans continue to drop, marking the third consecutive week they’ve declined. Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s VP and chief economist, explained that fixed mortgage rates are now down about half a percentage point from early June levels, when they began heading upward.

ForeclosureRadar, a company based in Discovery Bay, California that tracks every foreclosure in the Golden State, says it expected the new California Foreclosure Prevention Act to have little impact. But the company reported Tuesday that in fact, the day the law went into effect, it saw a significant decline in filings of Notice of Trustee Sale, which set the date and time of a foreclosure auction sale.