OTS
By Carrie Bay | 01/18/2012
Wolters Kluwer Financial Services continues to expand its regulatory and risk management consulting services. The company recently brought on Timothy R. Burniston to serve as VP and senior director of professional services for its risk and compliance business. Burniston, previously a senior associate director with the Federal Reserve Board's division of consumer and community affairs, joins the company's growing roster of more than 400 in-house regulatory and risk management experts.
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By Carrie Bay | 07/12/2011
Putting struggling borrowers into mortgages with more manageable monthly payments via a loan modification is a key element of the industry's effort to cut the nation's foreclosure crisis short. A recent study by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) took a look at loan performance post-modification. The regulators found that more recent modifications have performed better than earlier modifications, reflecting an increasing emphasis on lower monthly payments and sustainability.
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By Carrie Bay | 06/29/2011
The performance of first-lien mortgages serviced by large national banks and thrifts improved in the first quarter as troubled loans worked through the system, according to a report released Wednesday by federal regulators. Their analysis of servicing portfolios as a whole found that loans serviced for government agencies and the GSEs are outperforming those held by banks and thrifts on their own books. Nevertheless, delinquencies improved across all risk categories and for all asset owners, while newly started foreclosures declined sharply.
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By Carrie Bay | 06/14/2011
A dozen U.S. senators are pooling their influence to persuade federal regulators to work with state attorneys general and other federal agencies to "fix the broken foreclosure process," as the lawmakers put it. In a letter to the OCC, the senators stressed that the regulators' consent orders do not preclude states' efforts to hold servicers accountable for any wrongful foreclosures. In a separate move, lawmakers have tagged a servicing regulation bill on as an amendment to the larger economic development legislation making its way through Congress.
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By Carrie Bay | 06/13/2011
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision have extended the deadline for 12 of 14 mortgage servicers to submit their plans for conducting foreclosure reviews. Under April's consent agreements, servicers are required to retain independent consultants to review all residential foreclosures processed in 2009 and 2010. Initially, servicers had until May 31st to submit their plans for these reviews, but at the request of the U.S. Justice Department, the deadline has been extended by 30 days.
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By Carrie Bay | 06/01/2011
Rep. Elijah Cummings has requested to see copies of the engagement letters between 14 mortgage servicers and the private consultants they've hired for foreclosure reviews. As part of the consent agreements with federal regulators to settle robo-signing allegations, the servicers are required to retain independent, third parties to review all 2009 and 2010 foreclosures. Consumer advocates have criticized the decision to allow the servicers to do the hiring, and Cummings says he wants to ensure regulators are holding them accountable.
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By Carrie Bay | 05/25/2011
Negotiation talks continued this week between state attorneys general and the nation's largest mortgage servicers to settle robo-signing allegations, and those on the states' side of the table began throwing out big numbers to convince servicers they should ante up. Attorneys general advised representatives from the five largest servicing shops that they would be on the hook for at least $17 billion from civil lawsuits alone if the two parties don't reach a settlement agreement.
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By Carrie Bay | 05/10/2011
State attorneys general are holding meetings with the nation's largest mortgage servicers this week to negotiate a settlement agreement for the robo-signing issues that surfaced last fall. The most controversial piece of the AGs initial proposal - mandated principal write-downs - has reportedly been dropped from the discussions. The primary issue now is the amount of fines to be levied, which the states want to use to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure.
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By Carrie Bay | 05/05/2011
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."
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By Heather Hill Cernoch | 04/28/2011
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.
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