News

Situs recently announced that it has completed its acquisition of The Collingwood Group, a Washington, D.C.-based advisory firm.

According to billionaire Warren Buffett, Wells Fargo's CEO John Stumpf should have responded sooner to problems with its sales incentive programs which, Buffett says, were "incentivizing the wrong kind of behavior." The Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway addressed the bank's scandal on Saturday during a Q&A session with shareholders. He also discussed the firm's Q1 report and potential corporate tax cuts.

Clayton Holdings LLC recently announced that it has developed an enhanced internal audit services program. The program is designed to help bank and lender clients develop, manage and enhance their internal risks and controls programs and comply with new government-sponsored enterprise and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau requirements

Total Home Value for Portfolio Monitoring is a self-service, fixed-cost solution that CoreLogic states will help mortgage lenders and servicers evaluate and understand the collateral value of their mortgage portfolios on a periodic basis. CoreLogic states that this solution frees mortgage lenders, insurers, servicers and investors from budgetary constraints that may have resulted in foregoing current valuation information.

For a limited time, Chase Mortgage is partnering with Chase Sapphire to offer Sapphire customers 100,000 reward points on their credit cards when the purchase a home loan with Chase Mortgage, according to an announcement Monday.

With traditional lending systems such as banks not meeting the needs of consumers, fintechs and online lending platforms have become a much more valuable resource for investors and consumers. Fintechs can use non-traditional data to underwriting and lending techniques to assess the credit worthiness of loan applicants using online information gleaned from social media, etc., notably loan applicants that may appear as “credit invisible” to other institutions. However, this "alternative data" brings security risks.

Amid cease and desist orders and a federal lawsuit, Georgia-based Ocwen Financial Corp. continues to see support from its service providers, including Altisource. The mortgage services company as been embroiled in legal troubled for years over issues regarding the quality of its mortgages.

In an effort to better serve some persistent affordable housing problems in the U.S. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac released their proposed Duty to Serve plans. "Duty to Serve presents a welcome opportunity to lead the mortgage industry and help more American families with their housing needs," said Danny Gardner, Freddie Mac's vice president of affordable lending and access to credit. The purpose of the plan is to better serve some persistent affordable housing problems in the U.S.

Under the 1967 Freedom of Information Act, Congress is exempt from requests for records and material, and as Hensarling stated, communications between the Financial Services Committee and various branches of government constitute congressional records. Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-California), criticized Hensarling’s statements.

Following a week of argument within Congress regarding everything from healthcare to the Financial CHOICE Act, on Wednesday at 2 p.m. EST, the Department of the Treasury will release its monthly Federal Budget Statement. The Bureau of Fiscal Service releases a report of the monthly receipts/outlays and deficits/surplus of the United States. This budget announcement comes right on the heels of the first round of votes to move the Financial CHOICE Act forward, a bill which would act as an alternative to the Dodd-Frank Act.