Tag Archives: Federal Reserve

The national unemployment rate rose to 9.0 percent in April, up from 8.8 percent in March, according to figures released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor. Employers added 244,000 new jobs to their payrolls last month, but the government agency says the number of unemployed was little changed at 13.7 million, as people who had previously given up looking for work resumed their search. Job creation in the private sector accounted for all of last month's gains.

In the wake of the industry's robo-signing issues, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released a report urging the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to make mortgage servicing standards a priority. After examining applicable laws and interviewing mortgage investors and other industry participants, the agency concluded that federal laws do not specifically address the foreclosure process, and as a result, oversight of servicers has been ""limited and fragmented.""

In an effort to help mortgage servicers respond to the consent orders issued by regulators last month, Lender Processing Services (LPS) has announced enhancements to its mortgage loan servicing platform (MSP). The consent orders require servicers to provide borrowers with a dedicated single point-of-contact for specific loss mitigation and servicing functions. Via LPS's MSP, clients can assign, view, and obtain detailed information on the single point-of-contact assigned to each specific loan throughout the life of the loan.

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, a specialty and component mortgage servicer, added 100 employees in the past 60 days to help servicers stay compliant with the interagency review issued this month by the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Office of Thrift Supervision. Two key enforcement actions were included in the consent orders for each servicer examined -- the hiring of an an independent consultant to review residential foreclosure actions from 2009 and 2010, and an expert assessment of risks in servicing operations.

The Federal Reserve will end its second bond-buying spree - this time to the tune of $600 billion - by the end of the second quarter as planned. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says the sunset of the central bank's targeted initiative for pumping money into the economy is ""unlikely to have a significant effect"" on mortgage rates. That was Bernanke's response during the hour-long press conference held Wednesday after the Fed's two-day policy meeting - the first press briefing held by a U.S. central bank commander in the institution's 96-year history.

The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday requested public comment on a proposed rule under Regulation Z that would require lenders to determine a borrower's ability to repay a mortgage before making the loan and would establish minimum mortgage underwriting standards. The revisions to the regulation, which implements the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), are in response to new consumer protection directives laid out by the Dodd-Frank Reform Act. The proposal provides four options for complying with the ability-to-repay requirement.

The retrospective foreclosure reviews mandated in the consent orders issued to servicers this week will help regulators evaluate the extent of the problem and determine the amount of monetary fines that should be assessed, according to John Walsh, head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Walsh says in addition to these punitive penalties, servicers will have to absorb ""substantial expense"" to fix their problems and are obligated to provide restitution to borrowers who suffered financial harm ""with no dollar cap.""

The Federal Reserve released a new rendition of its market-gauging Beige Book Wednesday. Economic activity on the whole has improved, but residential and commercial real estate were again branded as hindering growth and recovery. Half of the 12 Fed districts reported pockets of weakening in their single-family markets. Most signs of improvement came from agents and brokers in Florida and Philadelphia. Seven of the districts described commercial real estate as improved but only slightly, while five districts noted that their markets were flat.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Reserve, and the Office of Thrift Supervision announced formal enforcement actions Wednesday against 14 mortgage servicers and two firms that provide foreclosure-related services to the industry - LPS and MERS. The consent orders are the result of regulators' investigations into robo-signing allegations and represent a settlement with the firms involved, at least in part. Both the OCC and Fed say they believe monetary sanctions in these cases are also warranted, and they plan to pursue such actions separately.

Federal regulators split from state attorneys general last week to cut their own deal with mortgage servicers as part of a settlement for the robo-signing mess that surfaced last fall. Critics of the side deal are calling for federal regulators to withdraw their agreements and work with the states to hold banks accountable. But even in the attorney general camp there has been dissension. A study released Tuesday by three economists says the original settlement proposal backed by state counsels could increase the foreclosure inventory by $297 billion.