As the industry continues to wake up to the post-October 2 world of new principal limit factors and mortgage insurance premiums, here’s a quick refresher on what you may have missed from the week in Home Equity Conversion Mortgage news:
MBA President Supports Call to Remove Reverse Mortgages from MMI Fund — Mortgage Bankers Association president David Stevens told RMD that he supports the idea of shifting the reverse mortgage program out of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, joining Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and others. Removing the HECM from the fund — and the annual scrutiny that comes along with the release of the actuarial report in the fall — would allow lawmakers to come up with more thoughtful, long-term solutions to the HECM’s issues, Stevens said.
HECMs Account for 5% of Older Americans’ CFPB Mortgage Complaints — An in-depth analysis of complaints sent to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that HECM-related issues accounted for about 5% of mortgage complaints from Americans over the age of 62, with a specific focus on origination problems.
Washington Charges HighTechLending with Deceptive HECM Advertising — The state of Washington cracked down on the Irvine, Calif.-based HighTechLending, Inc., charging the firm with using deceptive and false reverse mortgage marketing materials. The issues largely revolved around omissions of information, but HighTechLending claims that it pulled all of the offending ads as soon as they were altered to the problems.
Carson: New Reverse Mortgage Rules Will ‘Stop the Bleeding’ — RMD readers continued to flock to this story from last week about Ben Carson’s hearing before the House Financial Services Committee, in which he expressed support for shifting the HECM out of the MMI fund and the recent rule changes to the federal reverse mortgage program.
Liberty, Reverse Mortgages Unaffected by Ocwen’s Forward Wholesale Exit — Despite Ocwen Financial Corporation’s (NYSE: OCN) recent exit from the wholesale forward-loan business, the company says its reverse mortgage arm, Liberty Home Equity Solutions, remains unaffected.
CFPB to Discuss HECMs
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will discuss HECMs, along with other issues, at an upcoming meeting of its Consumer Advisory Board. The group will present a daylong program at the Hilton Tampa Downtown in Tampa, Fla. on November 2, and anyone interested in submitting a question can drop a line to CFPB_CABandCouncilsEvents@cfpb.gov at least seven days before the event.
Written by Alex Spanko
