Servicing

Mat Ishbia, President and CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage, spoke with MReport on how mortgage lenders and brokers can adapt to the changing climate. According to Ishbia, the industry is not in the same place it was just five years ago, and drastic changes are sure to continue into the coming years. How has wholesale mortgages changed, and what can we expect in the future?

Asurity Technologies, an enterprise formed to provide the financial services industry with RegTech solutions, announced its formation as an entity bringing together Treliant Solutions, LLC, Risk Management Solutions, Inc., and Mortgage Resources Group, LLC into an integrated compliance platform. According to Asurity, this platform will allow lenders to establish compliance, proactively manage a fair lending and redlining risk, and submit for both HDMA and CRA.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is looking to the public for input regarding Limited English Proficiency (LEP) in the mortgage lifecycle. LEF borrowers currently face challenges applying for mortgages because they risk not understanding or relying too much on a source that could mislead them. FHFA looks to better understand the experience LEP borrowers have in order to improve support from the mortgage industry.

Fidelity National Financial (FNF) announced the acquisition of Hudson & Marshall (H&M), a full-service auction company, Monday. Industry reaction was instantaneous, as was a jump in FNF’s stock. Under FNF’s umbrella, ServiceLink, a provider of transaction services to the mortgage and finance industries, is launching ServiceLink Auction, a full-service auction platform that will provide foreclosure and REO auction services fully integrated with ServiceLink’s suite of products.

On Monday, the City of Philadelphia sued Wells Fargo & Co for predatory lending and violations of the Fair Housing Act. This suit comes just two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities may sue lenders for alleged discrimination, according to Reuters. Two weeks before this case, the Supreme Court had ruled that Miami could sue Bank of America for predatory lending practices that allegedly increased segregation.

A years-old case between Bank of New York Mellon and JPMorgan Chase is back on again—at least in part— after a New York state appeals court revived the suit this week. BNY claims that JPMorgan and affiliate WMC Mortgage breached contracts, failed to repurchase certain defective loans, and failed to provide notice of faulty loans. The case was originally filed in 2015.

Representatives from the leading mortgage servicers and default servicing law firms in the U.S. met to discuss issues currently impacting business. Attendees listed to several panels and speakers to learn more about changes and issues the industry faces.

Proactive and novel approaches prove key to properly servicing loans—and the next generation of borrowers—in this era of rising rates, shifting purchase trends, a freshly implemented administration, an evolving regulatory environment, and rapidly accelerating technology.

Warren Buffett weighed in on the recent Wells Fargo scandal, which saw its sales reps create fake accounts in order to meet quotas, at a recent Q&A with Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. According to the billionaire, the bank incentivized the "wrong kind of behavior," and CEO John Stumpf should've acted sooner. Buffett also covered the firm's recent earnings report and expected corporate tax cuts.

On Monday, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac released their proposed Duty to Serve (DTS) plans. The purpose of the plan is to better serve some persistent affordable housing problems in the U.S. DTS is a Federal Housing Finance Agency plan which requires Fannie and Freddie to increase the availability of mortgage financing in rural housing, manufactured housing, and affordable housing preservation in order to serve very low- to moderate-income families.