Mortgages

A technical error made by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has become a saving grace for lenders who had pushed, begged and pleaded for more time to comply with a new mortgage disclosure rule.

It turns out the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's failure to file a two-page form to Congress on time was the unspecified "administrative error" that delayed the effective date for new mortgage disclosure rules.

A flood of ex-homeowners may be ready to re-enter the mortgage market over the next five years, according to a TransUnion report.

WASHINGTON — After months of declining industry and congressional pleas to delay an impending rule combining two mortgage disclosure regimes, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday announced a two-month delay due to an "administrative error."

Six servicers were cited for a range of infractions, including a failure to respond to requests for loan modifications and not doing enough to prevent foreclosures. Punishment was harsh for Wells Fargo and HSBC, which are banned from acquiring mortgage servicing rights and entering into new servicing contracts.

Six banks including JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo have been placed under further business restrictions after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency determined they had yet to fully meet regulatory orders related to the independent foreclosure review which began in 2011.

Discover Financial Services is closing its mortgage-origination business and will offer severance packages to about 460 employees.

The decline in foreclosures and short sales is contributing to the dearth of housing inventory, complicating the prospects for home buyers feeling the pinch of tight credit and lenders that need purchase mortgages to supplant refinancing once interest rates rise.

California Gov. Jerry Brown violated state law by diverting more than $331 million in mortgage settlement funds for uses unrelated to housing, a Superior Court judge ruled.

Private mortgage insurers see deeper coverage of GSE loans as a way to expand business, while lenders hope it could lead to a reduction to guarantee fees.

New York's highest court may have shut the door to many future lawsuits over flawed mortgage bonds, ruling investors have six years from the day the deal closed to pursue remedies.

The number of vacant and abandoned properties that are in foreclosure decreased in the second quarter, according to a RealtyTrac report.

The mortgage lender Nationstar Mortgage Holdings is pouring a lot of energy into a digital and mobile homebuying platform called Xome. The strategy could attract tech-savvy millennials but carries plenty of risks including whether consumers would be improperly steered to its products.

More than a dozen housing groups are urging lawmakers to pass legislation that would grant lenders a formal grace period for implementing new disclosure forms later this summer, arguing that the industry needs greater certainty than the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has so far provided.

Bank of America will close drive-up teller windows at a dozen branches in Nashville and reduce in-store hours at an additional group of branches, The Tennessean reported.

With the onset of the new integrated disclosures rule, mortgage lenders owe it to their companies to make sure that operations folks have the chance to get out to events and workshops that will keep them informed and updated on new industry requirements.

The California Reinvestment Coalition has called for a federal investigation into the foreclosure policies of OneWest Bank in minority neighborhoods.

The Louisiana Real Estate Appraisers Board has fined an appraisal management company $5,000 for failing to pay "customary and reasonable" fees to appraisers.

How interested banks, REITs and other investors will be in replacing the Federal Reserve as buyers of mortgage-backed securities insured by government-related entities depends on a wide range of regulatory and economic factors.

Guarantee Mortgage Corp. has agreed to pay a $228,000 fine to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on allegations that it violated rules dealing with loan originator compensation.