Articles Related To Mortgage Servicing Fraud

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Date	Article Articles are added weekly	Source	Comment
11/30/23	The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crisis Warning Bell Didn’t Ring Before the Repo Crisis of 2019 or This Year’s Bank Runs	Wall Street On Parade	The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crisis Warning Bell Didn’t Ring Before the Repo Crisis of 2019 or This Year’s Bank Runs The Office of Financial Research (OFR) is a unit of the U.S. Treasury Department. OFR was created as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation of 2010 to keep the Financial Stability Oversight Council (F-SOC) informed about emerging threats that have the potential to spread contagion throughout the U.S. financial system — as occurred in 2008 in the worst financial crash since the Great Depression.
11/30/23	Investors buying up homes in Massachusetts at red-hot pace: report	Boston Herald	Investors buying up homes in Massachusetts at red-hot pace: report An investor purchased one in every five homes sold between 2004 and 2018 across Greater Boston, a recent finding that housing advocates say is not surprising and one that confirms what they’ve seen anecdotally in their communities over the past decade. The Metropolitan Area Planning Council released a report this week, dubbed “Homes for Profit: Speculation and Investment in Greater Boston,” showing that investors accounted for 21% of total home sales in the region during the period. Roughly 87% of the transactions involved single-family homes and condominiums, with investor activity increasing from 16% of purchases in 2004 to 23% in 2018, the report found.
11/30/23	FHA issues extensive new reverse mortgage servicing updates	Reverse Mortgage Daily	FHA issues extensive new reverse mortgage servicing updates The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) on Thursday published new Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) servicing guidance in response to industry feedback. In Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2023-23, FHA has codified several core reverse mortgage program servicing changes after posting an initial draft ML on the Single Family Drafting Table at the beginning of November.
11/29/23	Managing Today’s Tech Trends in Mortgage Servicing	DS News	Managing Today’s Tech Trends in Mortgage Servicing Gagan Sharma is the Founder and CEO of BSI Financial Inc., a cloud-based, open API and AI-driven platform. BSI offers an end-to-end digital servicing platform that enables investors and originators to transact seamlessly, with automated loan boarding, investor reporting, and data-driven loan monitoring through the lifecycle of the mortgage. BSI Financial has also built a proprietary AI-driven compliance automation and workflow that ensures complex, state-by-state regulations are kept up-to-date and acted on with precision and certainty, providing real-time visibility into the mortgage details and exceptions.
11/24/23	Foreclosure Whirlwind: Report Unveils A Tale Of Contrasts	Yahoo Finance	Foreclosure Whirlwind: Report Unveils A Tale Of Contrasts The latest snapshot of the U.S. real estate landscape reveals a nuanced pattern of foreclosure filings. Real estate data firm ATTOM's October U.S. Foreclosure Market Report shows a 6% decline from September, suggesting a respite; the report also underscores a 6% increase compared to the same period a year ago. The dynamics reflect a delicate balance with signs of improvement slightly tempered by persistent challenges, creating an environment where homeowners, lenders and policymakers must navigate a complex intersection of economic forces. The report found there were 34,472 foreclosure filings encompassing a range of stress indicators, including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.
11/22/23	The housing market’s deep slump, in five charts	NBC News	The housing market’s deep slump, in five charts The U.S. housing market is slumping. Home sales have dropped this year, as high prices, high borrowing costs and a low supply of available homes have combined to send potential buyers to the sidelines. Here are five charts that show the state of the housing market.
11/22/23	Six Big Banks Forced to Declare $9.3 Billion in Additional FDIC Expenses; Another Reason Their Talons Are Out for FDIC Chair Gruenberg	Wall Street On Parade	Six Big Banks Forced to Declare $9.3 Billion in Additional FDIC Expenses; Another Reason Their Talons Are Out for FDIC Chair Gruenberg The biggest banks in the U.S. that have been serially bailed out by the Federal Reserve since they blew up the financial system in 2008, are ripping mad at the Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Martin Gruenberg. In addition to the FDIC and other federal banking regulators’ proposed rule to increase capital requirements on the largest banks, the FDIC just issued a final rule on November 16 that will force six banks to report an FDIC special assessment expense totaling more than $9.3 billion in the final quarter of this year. (See chart above.)
11/21/23	The VA stops foreclosures for thousands of veterans after NPR investigation	NPR	The VA stops foreclosures for thousands of veterans after NPR investigation The Department of Veterans Affairs put a stop to foreclosures for veterans with VA home loans after NPR found that thousands were at risk of losing their homes through no fault of their own.
11/20/23	5 Triggers to Shift In-House Servicing to a Subservicer	DS News	5 Triggers to Shift In-House Servicing to a Subservicer Efficiency in mortgage servicing is vital, especially during times of significant change in the mortgage landscape. Changes in the market, such as interest rate shifts, regulatory alterations, or major economic events, can trigger a surge in mortgage applications, refinancing requests, or default rates. An efficient mortgage servicing operation is better equipped to handle these fluctuations, maintaining seamless customer experience, minimizing the risk of errors, and ensuring regulatory compliance.
11/17/23	'Zombie mortgages' could be attached to a property, even if they were charged off years ago	ABC7	'Zombie mortgages' could be attached to a property, even if they were charged off years ago LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Zombie mortgages: are they as terrifying as they sound? They could be. Last month, Eyewitness News shared the story of Carson resident Adaina Brown. Her dream home is turning into a nightmare. "It kind of just broke my heart," she said last month. "I told my husband, 'I can't take another thing.'" When she and her husband bought the house in 2007, they needed a first and second mortgage. She said after property values plummeted, one of her lenders eventually charged off the second loan. She received a letter stating she was not responsible for the debt. "'This debt has been charged off. You are no longer liable for this debt,'" Brown said as she recalled what was indicated in the letter. But that's where it gets tricky. Even if you are not responsible personally, a lien can still remain against the property. Another loan company now has that debt and says there is still an amount due of more than $139,000. "The company that now owns that debt, whether it's a debt collector or a new loan company, is coming back after it because housing prices have risen and they're hoping to collect on that," explained Ali Hashemian, the President of Kinetic Financial. After ABC7's report, the new loan company, Specialized Loan Servicing, or SLS, sent Eyewitness News at statement, saying in part "... There is a mortgage lien on the property that is intact and enforceable. A lien remains in place on the property in question until the debt is resolved through payment in full, an agreed settlement, or foreclosure." It's like a horror story. ByKinetic Financial President Ali Hashemian Financial experts worry there are thousands of these so-called "zombie mortgages" handled by many different companies, and homeowners might not be aware of the consequences.
11/14/23	The Deposit Insurance Fund Has a Balance of $117 Billion to Protect Deposits at 4,622 Banks. But One of Those Banks Has $1.4 Trillion in Uninsured Deposits	Wall Street On Parade	The Deposit Insurance Fund Has a Balance of $117 Billion to Protect Deposits at 4,622 Banks. But One of Those Banks Has $1.4 Trillion in Uninsured Deposits Today, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee will call federal banking regulators before it to testify at a hearing at 10 a.m. The underlying theme will be why these regulators were caught napping when the second, third, and fourth largest bank failures in U.S. history occurred in a span of seven weeks this past Spring and hear about the new plans of action to restore confidence in the U.S. banking system.
11/13/23	PHH Mortgage Announces New Subservicing Agreement With Zillow Home Loans	Yahoo Finance	PHH Mortgage Announces New Subservicing Agreement With Zillow Home Loans WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Nov. 13, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PHH Mortgage Corporation (“PHH” or the “Company”), a subsidiary of Ocwen Financial Corporation (NYSE: OCN) and a leading non-bank mortgage servicer and originator, today announced that it has entered into a mortgage subservicing agreement with Zillow Home Loans, LLC (“Zillow Home Loans”).
11/11/23	Thousands of veterans face foreclosure and it's not their fault. The VA could help	NPR	Thousands of veterans face foreclosure and it's not their fault. The VA could help Becky Queen remembers opening the letter with the foreclosure notice. "My heart dropped," she said, "and my hands were shaking." Queen lives on a small farm in rural Oklahoma with her husband, Ray, and their two young kids. Ray is a U.S. Army veteran who was wounded in Iraq. Since the 1940s, the federal government has helped veterans like him buy homes through its VA loan program, run by the Department of Veterans Affairs. But now the VA has put this family on the brink of losing their house. "I didn't do anything wrong," says Ray Queen. "The only thing I did was trust a company that I'm supposed to trust with my mortgage."
11/08/23	Five Star Announces Launch of Mortgage Servicing Executive Alliance	DS News	Five Star Announces Launch of Mortgage Servicing Executive Alliance The Five Star Institute, parent company of MortgagePoint, has announced the launch of a mortgage industry trade group—the Mortgage Servicing Executive Alliance (MSEA). Intended as a forum to facilitate progress, collaboration, mentorship, and networking for mortgage industry executives, the MSEA joins Five Star’s National Mortgage Servicing Association (NMSA) as a group that represents thought leadership and best practices in mortgage servicing.
11/08/23	Report: During Spring Banking Crisis, Banks Borrowed Over $1 Trillion from Federal Home Loan Banks — $100 Billion More than During the Crash of 2008	Wall Street On Parade	Report: During Spring Banking Crisis, Banks Borrowed Over $1 Trillion from Federal Home Loan Banks — $100 Billion More than During the Crash of 2008 Yesterday, the regulator of the Federal Home Loan Bank system, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), released a report on its recommended changes going forward. The report was in response to the questionable conduct of the Federal Home Loan Banks in the leadup to the banking crisis this past spring.
11/07/23	Bond-market crash leaves big banks with $650 billion of unrealized losses as the ghost of SVB continues to haunt Wall Street	Business Insider	Bond-market crash leaves big banks with $650 billion of unrealized losses as the ghost of SVB continues to haunt Wall Street Big banks are sitting on $650 billion of unrealized losses, Moody's has estimated. It's a sign even Wall Street's best-known names are feeling the heat from the Treasury-market rout. Crashing bond prices sank Silicon Valley Bank earlier this year, and there may be more chaos to come.
11/07/23	Mortgage & HELOC Balances, Delinquencies, Foreclosures: How Are our Drunken Sailors Holding Up?	Wolfstreet	Mortgage & HELOC Balances, Delinquencies, Foreclosures: How Are our Drunken Sailors Holding Up? Mortgage balances outstanding ticked up 1.0% in Q3 from Q2, to a new record of $12.1 trillion, after having dipped in Q2, according to data from the New York Fed’s Household Debt and Credit Report. This increase is less than half the pace than the big jumps during the era of the 3% mortgages, when mortgage balances had soared quarter-to-quarter by as much as 2.8% in Q2 2021.
11/03/23	What's Worrying New York's Banking Regulators? Plenty, Including CRE Loans	Globest	What's Worrying New York's Banking Regulators? Plenty, Including CRE Loans New York’s top financial regulator — Adrienne Harris, director of the state’s Department of Financial Services — has been vocal about a number of issues, including cryptocurrency regulation and better and faster bank oversight. And the state of CRE loans. Harris stated in a recent Bloomberg TV interview that the “banking system is very stable” after the actions federal regulators took in March, closing several banks like Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank in California and Signature Bank in New York. But then she added that “there’s still lots of issues looming,” like risks from interest high interest rates, attending unrealized losses, and exposure to commercial real estate loans. “So, the regional banking crisis, I think, is over,” Harris added. “The banks are stabilized, but certainly we’re mindful of other risks in the system.”
11/03/23	HELOC, Broker Pricing, LOS, Servicing Retention Products; Training and Webinars; STRATMOR on Tech	Mortgage News Daily	HELOC, Broker Pricing, LOS, Servicing Retention Products; Training and Webinars; STRATMOR on Tech The upcoming credit price changes were not discussed yesterday at the counter in Paul’s Pancake Parlor here in Missoula, but they might have been. As well as the resignation of NAR’s CEO… are there cracks in the powerful NAR empire? One thing that did come up was the commercial real estate market, reminding us that people need a place to live, not necessarily a place to work. Want to know how bad the commercial real estate market may become? Follow the money.
11/03/23	FHA publishes proposed reverse mortgage servicing guidance to Single Family Drafting Table	Reverse Mortgage Daily	FHA publishes proposed reverse mortgage servicing guidance to Single Family Drafting Table The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) this week published a new draft version of a Mortgagee Letter (ML) containing a series of proposed changes to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program to the Single Family Drafting Table, an online portal designed to gather stakeholder input on proposed guidance before implementation. The new draft ML primarily contains proposed changes focused on reverse mortgage servicing. Stakeholder feedback is due by Nov. 7.
11/02/23	Vesta and Willow Servicing Partner to Forge a Seamless Bridge Between Origination and Servicing, Paving the Way for an End-to-End Digitized Mortgage Process	Yahoo Finance	Vesta and Willow Servicing Partner to Forge a Seamless Bridge Between Origination and Servicing, Paving the Way for an End-to-End Digitized Mortgage Process SAN FRANCISCO, November 02, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vesta, the creator of the modern mortgage loan origination system, is pleased to announce its integration with Willow Servicing. This partnership marks a significant step toward harmonizing traditionally segmented origination and servicing processes. It provides seamless, end-to-end connectivity from application through post-close, all within the LOS.
11/02/23	ICE’s mortgage business outperforms in Q3 despite industry headwinds	Housing Wire	ICE’s mortgage business outperforms in Q3 despite industry headwinds ICE's improved adjusted operating income of $131M in Q3 was driven by strong sales in its Encompass loan origination, MSP solutions systems
10/29/23	Fines Levied: Oregon reaches $2.3B settlement with ACI	The Chronicle Online	Fines Levied: Oregon reaches $2.3B settlement with ACI The Oregon Division of Financial Regulation (DFR) joined 43 other state financial agencies in reaching a settlement with ACI Payments Inc. (ACI), for erroneously initiating electronic transactions totaling $2.3 billion from the accounts of 480,000 mortgage-holders nationwide. By the numbers State regulators levied $10 million in fines through a multistate enforcement action. In Oregon, there were over 13,000 erroneous ACH entries affecting nearly 5,000 accounts. The dollar value of transaction in Oregon alone was over $23 million. Additionally, 50 state attorneys general, including the Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, levied an additional $10 million in fines to ACI, in coordination with state regulators.
10/27/23	Wire You Foreclosing?	JD Supra	Wire You Foreclosing? Does a lender have the right to foreclose its mortgage if a payoff of such mortgage is made by wire transfer, but the payment does not make it to the lender’s account? A recent case[1], heard on appeal by the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division, Second Department (the “Court”), explored this issue, specifically looking to the language of Article 4-A of the Uniform Commercial Code (“UCC”), which governs “funds transfer”[2] or what we commonly refer to as a “wire transfer,” to issue its ruling. The plaintiff in the case, U.S. Bank National Association (“US Bank”), was the holder of a mortgage on certain real property located in Bay Shore, New York (the “Bay Shore Property”). The mortgage was serviced by Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC (“Ocwen”).
10/26/23	Hedging, Webinars, HELOC, Prequal Tools; STRATMOR on Servicing; Lunches and RESPA	Mortgage News Daily	Hedging, Webinars, HELOC, Prequal Tools; STRATMOR on Servicing; Lunches and RESPA It is said that if all the hunters on opening day(s) of deer season in Wisconsin were grouped together, they would comprise the sixth largest army in the world! Sometimes lenders feel that they have a target on their backs, and here at the WMBA’s 49th Annual Real Estate & Finance Conference in Milwaukee, some of the informal talk in the hallways is about avoiding redlining, a focus of audits and exams. Another is RESPA. When does “As you wish” or “intent” figure into lending? “Rob, is it true that the same business lunch can either be a RESPA violation, or not?” I am not an expert in compliance, but yes, that is true.
10/25/23	Tozer Proposes Ginnie Mae Support of Independent Mortgage Bank Funding	DS News	Tozer Proposes Ginnie Mae Support of Independent Mortgage Bank Funding In a recent paper presented by The Urban Institute, Ted Tozer, Nonresident Fellow in the Housing Finance Policy Center of the Urban Institute, proposes that Ginnie Mae support the housing system to stabilize financing for independent mortgage banks (IMBs).
10/24/23	Freddie Mac Sells $19.1 Million in Non-Performing Loans	DS News	Freddie Mac Sells $19.1 Million in Non-Performing Loans Freddie Mac has announced it sold, via auction, 88 non-performing residential first lien loans (NPLs) from its mortgage-related investments portfolio to GITSIT Solutions LLC and VRMTG ACQ LLC, a woman-owned business. The loans are currently serviced by Specialized Loan Servicing LLC.
10/20/23	JPMorgan Chase Paid $1.085 Billion in Legal Expenses in Last Six Months; It’s Still Battling Hundreds of Charges and Legal Proceedings on Three Continents	Wall Street On Parade	JPMorgan Chase Paid $1.085 Billion in Legal Expenses in Last Six Months; It’s Still Battling Hundreds of Charges and Legal Proceedings on Three Continents At some point, federal regulators, the Senate Banking Committee and the criminal division of the U.S. Department of Justice are going to reach the same conclusion that Wall Street On Parade reached quite some time ago: JPMorgan Chase is a criminal enterprise in drag as a federally-insured bank.
10/20/23	Foreclosures continue to surge: Are they a threat to the housing market?	NY Post	Foreclosures continue to surge: Are they a threat to the housing market? Is this a repeat of the 2008 housing bust? The number of homeowners hit with foreclosure notices in the third quarter of the year jumped 34% from a year ago to nearly 125,000, according to a recent report from real estate data firm ATTOM. They were up 28% from the previous quarter. Across the country, about 1 in every 1,121 properties had a foreclosure filing in the third quarter. That’s a return to almost pre-pandemic levels as foreclosure moratoriums put in place in the early days of COVID-19 have expired. Filings included default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions.
10/19/23	Prepared Remarks of CFPB Director Rohit Chopra on the Proposed Personal Financial Data Rights Rule	CFPB	Prepared Remarks of CFPB Director Rohit Chopra on the Proposed Personal Financial Data Rights Rule Good morning, and thank you for being here today. In the last few decades, sectors across the economy have become more concentrated and centralized. A key priority for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is to ensure that consumer finance markets are fair, transparent, and competitive.
10/17/23	Three Oregon counties face class action suit over foreclosure law	KOIN	Three Oregon counties face class action suit over foreclosure law PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A class action lawsuit filed Thursday is looking to stop Oregon counties from retaining entire tax foreclosure proceeds, arguing the practice violates the United States Constitution, according to court documents.
10/17/23	What is a zombie mortgage? Couple facing foreclosure because of 'zombie' loan \| What to know	ABC7 News	What is a zombie mortgage? Couple facing foreclosure because of 'zombie' loan \| What to know CARSON, Calif. -- A Carson, California couple is facing foreclosure because of what's known as a "zombie loan." That term refers to a second mortgage that seemed to have been forgiven or written off - until years later when a collector reaches out about the unknown, but supposedly unpaid, debt. Such confusion over mortgages has led to a surprise massive bill that Adaina Brown and her husband can't pay.
10/17/23	Foreclosure valid despite lack of servicing license	RI Lawyers Weekly	Foreclosure valid despite lack of servicing license A mortgage foreclosure should not be invalidated despite the fact that the plaintiff borrower was sent a notice of default before the defendant had a loan servicing license, a U.S. District Court judge has decided.
10/17/23	Bank of America’s Deposits Fall, But at Slower Pace than JPMorgan Chase	Wall Street On Parade	Bank of America’s Deposits Fall, But at Slower Pace than JPMorgan Chase Bank of America is the second largest bank by assets in the United States, topped in assets by only JPMorgan Chase. Both mega banks have seen a steady decline in deposits since the first quarter of 2022. But the decline in deposits at Bank of America represents just 65 percent of the deposit outflows that have occurred at JPMorgan Chase in the past seven quarters. (Bank of America, as the chart above shows, did report a small uptick in deposits in the current quarter.)
10/16/23	JPMorgan Chase Has Lost a Quarter Trillion Dollars in Deposits in Last 7 Quarters — Fortress Balance Sheet or Leaky Sieve?	Wall Street On Parade	JPMorgan Chase Has Lost a Quarter Trillion Dollars in Deposits in Last 7 Quarters — Fortress Balance Sheet or Leaky Sieve? On May 1, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced that First Republic Bank had failed and that it was being sold to JPMorgan Chase. At the time, JPMorgan Chase was already the largest and riskiest bank in the United States. The sweetheart deal the bank got from the FDIC to take over First Republic included the FDIC eating 80 percent of any losses on single-family residential mortgages for 7 years and 80 percent of any losses on commercial loans, including commercial real estate, for five years. The FDIC also provided JPMorgan Chase with a $50 billion, five-year fixed-rate loan at an undisclosed interest rate.
10/12/23	U.S. Foreclosure Activity Shows Continued Rise In Third Quarter, Approaching Levels Seen Before Pandemic	ATTOM Data	U.S. Foreclosure Activity Shows Continued Rise In Third Quarter, Approaching Levels Seen Before Pandemic IRVINE, Calif. – Oct. 12, 2023 — ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property, and real estate data, released its Q3 2023 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows there were a total of 124,539 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions — up 28 percent from the previous quarter and 34 percent from a year ago. The report also shows there were a total of 37,679 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings in September 2023, up 11 percent from the previous month and up 18 percent from September 2022.
10/12/23	Fed’s Vice Chair for Supervision Says Another Financial Crisis Could Cost U.S. $5 Trillion to $25 Trillion – Potentially as Much as 100 Percent of GDP	Wall Street On Parade	Fed’s Vice Chair for Supervision Says Another Financial Crisis Could Cost U.S. $5 Trillion to $25 Trillion – Potentially as Much as 100 Percent of GDP On Monday, Michael Barr, the Vice Chair for Supervision at the Federal Reserve, addressed a contentious issue in a speech before the American Bankers Association’s annual convention in Nashville. The topic was why federal banking regulators have proposed higher capital levels for the largest U.S. banks, those with assets over $100 billion. As we reported on September 20, there has been aggressive pushback on the proposal from large banks, their lobbyists and their trade associations. (Community banks are not impacted by the proposal.)
10/11/23	Is the Mortgage Servicing Space in Need of a Reset?	DS News	Is the Mortgage Servicing Space in Need of a Reset? MortgageFlex has published a new white paper entitled, “The Evolution of Modern Servicing Software: Why industry disruption from the inside is changing how the mortgage servicing industry operates,” where it is suggested that it’s not technology that leads to disruption, but rather the mortgage servicers that put it to use.
10/11/23	Janet Yellen’s Treasury Department Hires 5-Count Felon JPMorgan Chase to Look for Fraud	Wall Street On Parade	Janet Yellen’s Treasury Department Hires 5-Count Felon JPMorgan Chase to Look for Fraud Immediately upon departing her post as Chair of the Federal Reserve, but prior to getting the nod from the Biden administration to become U.S. Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen engaged in what the courageous reporter at ProPublica, Jesse Eisinger, called a “two-fisted money grab from banks.” Yellen raked in more than $7 million in speaking fees with the bulk of that coming from Wall Street banks and trading houses, including JPMorgan Chase. In a Tweet, Eisinger said: “This is corruption, but isn’t called that because it’s so quotidian.” Now there is the appearance that a quid pro quo is coming full circle.

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