Housing officials announced Thursday the details of a historic, $25 billion mortgage servicing settlement with the five largest U.S. mortgage servicers: Bank of America, J.P Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Ally Financial and Citigroup. Forty-nine state attorneys general and the federal government signed the agreement. The settlement comes after months of evidence gathered with regard to [...]

In January, reverse mortgage lender Live Well Financial announced it had received approval to issue Ginnie Mae HECM Backed Mortgage Securities after a three-year-plus wait time. With the landscape for issuers having changed in recent months, is the timing of the approval a coincidence with two of the large HMBS issuers quitting the reverse mortgage [...]

A House subcommittee approved a bill Tuesday to help the Federal Housing Administration “shore up” the health of the Federal Housing Administration’s mortgage insurance fund. The FHA Emergency Fiscal Solvency Act aims to strengthen the fund, which insures all FHA loans including Home Equity Conversion Mortgages. An independent audit of the fund found in November [...]

Mortgage regulators now have SAFE Act Examination Guidelines (SEGs) with which to monitor and ensure mortgage loan originators are properly licensed and registered in the states where they are doing business. The Multi-State Mortgage Committee under the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) released the new guidelines Wednesday for use by state non-depository mortgage regulators. [...]

Since President Obama nominated Richard Cordray as Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director in early January, the controversy surrounding that recess appointment has spanned Washington—and beyond. But what about the constitutionality of the bureau itself? Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) weighed in on the CFPB, its director, and keeping Wall Street “in check” in [...]

While the measurable results of social media marketing efforts are largely to-be-determined for reverse mortgage lenders, several lenders are beginning to enter Twitter, Facebook and other social media channels. While they say it is too soon to measure success, not being present online is a risk they say they are not willing to take—even knowing [...]