#Movement Mortgage DOJ | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

valoansarlingtontx · 5 years

Link

Liberty Bank settles loan ‘redlining’ suit

Contents

Veterans affairs secretary robert

National consumer law center

National consumer law center today

Development loan program

5. 15099 cape henlopen

Affordable housing projects

Vietnam veteran files federal lawsuit to remove Bible on display at VA hospital James Chamberlain, an Air Force veteran and Christian, is suing the Department of Veterans Affairs to remove a Bible display at the Manchester VA Medical Center in New Hampshire.

Under the terms of the settlement, Liberty Bank will open a loan production office in a majority-minority census tract in the Hartford area; add $10 million to its "Good Neighbor" loan program.

Federal lawsuit says CFPB should collect data on business-loan applications from women and minorities Injured Veterans Train to Compete in 2019 Warrior Games JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas – The Air Force Wounded Warrior Program, or AFW2, has announced the 2019 Air Force Warrior. The 40-person team will go on to compete at the Department of.Veterans Affairs secretary vows not to privatize agency veterans affairs secretary robert Wilkie is moving quickly to roll out new rules by. While not directly opposing a veteran's right to see a private doctor, was a victory for the president, who vowed to revamp veterans' access to a.. The agency says its health-care budget has expanded to meet the needs.Navient, spun off from Sallie Mae, has thrived as student loan debt. that stand to profit from collecting the debt of loans that go into default.. But in a 24 March motion it filed in federal court for the CFPB's lawsuit, the company also said:. Researchers argue more data would help them understand how to.

Middletown-based Liberty Bank has been accused of "redlining" in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday by the Connecticut Fair Housing Center and the national consumer law center.

Hilliard & Shadowen, LLP Report Prominent AIDS Activists Join Lawsuit Challenging Anticompetitive Practices By Gilead And Other. Hilliard & Shadowen, LLP Report Prominent AIDS Activists Join Lawsuit Challenging Anticompetitive Practices By Gilead And Other Companies. Join Lawsuit Challenging Anticompetitive Practices By.

The Connecticut Fair Housing Center and the national consumer law center today filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut against Liberty Bank, alleging that the bank has violated the Fair Housing Act by engaging in unlawful "redlining" of predominantly African-American and Latinx neighborhoods in the greater Hartford and New Haven metropolitan areas.

An Obama-era fair-lending lawsuit against a Midwestern bank, which was filed shortly before President Trump’s inauguration, was settled this week by the Department of Justice. The government’s fair-lending suit, alleging redlining by Minnesota’s KleinBank, was unusual in that the bank publicly.

Under the settlement, KleinBank will expand its banking services in predominantly minority neighborhoods in the Minneapolis area. The bank will also commit $600,000 to loan subsidies and. accusing.

Nonprofits File Federal Housing Lawsuit Against Liberty Bank.. a federal lawsuit last week accusing the bank of redlining.. to meet with a Liberty Bank loan officer in May 2017 at the 55.

Harp Extension Bank Statement Loan Programs Liberty bank settles loan ‘redlining’ suit – Liberty Bank will also expand its community development loan program by $5 million over the next three years. to grow," Liberty President/CEO Chandler J. Howard said in a statement.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced last Thursday that it had reached an agreement with First Merchants Bank, an Indiana state-chartered bank, to settle the redlining lawsuit that the DOJ.

Open house Friday at Southwestern Veterans’ Center America’s Defense Budget Is Bigger Than You Think | William D. Hartung The Company Snapshot is a concise electronic record of a company’s identification, size, commodity information, and safety record, including the safety rating (if any), a roadside out-of-service inspection summary, and crash information. The Company Snapshot is available via an ad-hoc query (one carrier at a time) free of charge.At this museum, the only one in the world dedicated to the movement of troops and supplies, the guides-all veterans-take. is by guided tour or open house; . 15099 cape henlopen Dr., Lewes;.

In addition to the boost in home lending, Liberty Bank will expand its community development loan program by $5 million over the next three years to promote community service, economic development and affordable housing projects in low- and moderate income neighborhoods. Liberty Bank did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement agreement.

Now, CIT Bank has agreed to make amends, though it did not admit to redlining in the settlement. The bank will offer $100 million in mortgages and loans to majority-minority neighborhoods and invest.

The post Liberty Bank settles loan ‘redlining’ suit appeared first on VA Loans Arlington TX.

https://ift.tt/2zYEBjk

#Arlington VA Home Loan #VA Home Loan Requirements in Arlington #Arlington VA Loan Rates #VA Home Loan R

0 notes

bharatiyamedia-blog · 5 years

Text

Rep. Duncan Hunter Accused Of Utilizing Marketing campaign Funds To Financially Help A number of Affairs!

http://tinyurl.com/y3k54b4a Republican congressman Duncan Hunter has lengthy defended the sanctity of marriage as being between a person and a lady. He’s at all times been involved with upholding household values in his politics. So, it’s additional scrumptious to listen to he’s been accused by the Justice Division of utilizing his marketing campaign funds to hold out illicit romantic affairs with congressional aides and lobbyists! In accordance with a brand new courtroom submitting late Monday evening, Hunter and his spouse Margaret Hunter allegedly diverted $250,000 in marketing campaign funds for private use, together with paying for lavish holidays and their kids’s faculty tuition. On high of that, Hunter had personal bills of his personal. In accordance with feds, the California congressman allegedly routinely used marketing campaign funds to pay for Ubers, bar tabs, lodge rooms, and different bills to financially help not less than 5 extramarital relationships! Related: Dog The Bounty Hunter Calls ‘Fake News’ Amid Wife’s Cancer Battle! In a movement to confess proof filed on Tuesday, the Justice Division mentioned: “At trial, the US will search to confess proof of defendant Duncan D. Hunter’s expenditure of marketing campaign funds to pay for a bunch of private bills. Amongst these private bills had been funds Hunter spent to pursue a collection of intimate private relationships. This proof is critical to determine the private nature of the expenditures to reveal Hunter’s data and intent to interrupt the legislation, and to determine his motive to embezzle from his marketing campaign.” What a large number! Apparently, Hunter is prepared and keen to make this a much bigger mess in courtroom. Prosecutors mentioned they approached the protection to succeed in an settlement “that might get rid of the necessity to introduce this probably delicate proof at trial,” however Hunter’s legal professionals declined. The congressman’s spouse, then again, pled responsible earlier this month and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. (We’re certain these Uber receipts had one thing to do with it…) Her testimony is predicted for use at trial, which is slated for September 10. Hunter, in the meantime, is accusing prosecutors of political bias. He instructed Politico: “You’ve criminally political prosecutors on this case on a private smear marketing campaign. That is essentially the most political case on this planet.” The congressman is predicted to argue in courtroom his use of marketing campaign funds is regular amongst members of Congress — however the DoJ ready for that, too, by submitting a movement to exclude any proof of Hunter’s good conduct, together with his navy service. The submitting describes a number of situations by which Hunter allegedly used marketing campaign funds to financially help his affairs. In 2010, he allegedly took a lobbyist on a “double date” street journey to Virginia Seashore with a fellow congressman after which charged his marketing campaign for the lodge room and bar tab. Related: Donald Trump Says Woman Accusing Him Of Rape Is ‘Not My Type’ As for his private funds, prosecutors alleged Hunter and his spouse had been to this point in debt that they’d lower than $1,000 of their checking account from 2009 to 2017, and owed cash to shops like Macy’s and Residence Depot. Claiming the couple began falling behind on their kids’s tuition and missed a number of mortgage funds, prosecutors wrote: “Proof of Hunter’s unfavorable financial institution balances, overdue mortgage funds, bank card money owed, and different points of their depleted monetary situation is related to proving his motive, intent, data, and absence of mistake in spending marketing campaign funds for private use. It explains why he himself used marketing campaign funds to purchase every part from cigarettes to devices to groceries to getaways — issues he needed however couldn’t afford to purchase along with his personal cash.” The submitting comes after Hunter’s authorized crew requested for the case to be dismissed, on the grounds prosecutors had been solely after him as a result of they’re politically biased. Hunter had additionally beforehand attacked prosecutors as main a “witch hunt.” We surprise who he heard that from… [Picture through HBO] Source link

0 notes

toomanysinks · 6 years

Text

Can we ever evaluate technical debt?

Every couple of months, I talk to an entrepreneur who is interested in building a marketplace for buying and selling app businesses (i.e. the actual IP and ownership of an app or other piece of software). These markets always seem to suffer from a lack of liquidity, and one reason why is that it’s really hard to know how much technical debt is latent in a codebase.

First, the developer behind the codebase may not even be aware of the technical debt they have piled on. Second, until a software engineer really understands a codebase, they are almost certainly not in a position to answer a question on technical debt authoritatively. That makes it hard to get third-party opinions on anything but the most simple codebases.

This opaqueness isn’t unique to software though. We lack tools for understanding the maintenance quality of assets — physical or digital — across our economy. Even when we do perform maintenance or hire someone to do it for us, it can be hard to verify that the work was performed well. How long does it take for an auto mechanic to truly evaluate the maintenance of a used car?

I was thinking about this challenge of evaluating maintenance when I read this deep dive into the economics of old housing by Akron’s head of planning Jason Segedy:

It has been suggested to me, on more than one occasion, that indebted, college-educated Millennials could be lured back to the city by selling them these old, poorly-maintained houses for $1.00, and having them “fix up the house.”

People who say this do not have a realistic idea of what “fixing up” an old house entails—neither in terms of the scope of the rehabilitation work that would be required, nor in terms of the level of skill, time, and/or money needed to do the work.

Even in a low cost-of-living market like ours, $40,000 houses are generally not a “good deal.” They are almost always a liability. They are a ticking time bomb of deferred maintenance. They are an albatross.

In his own case:

All told, I have spent $93,400 on improvements to this house over the past 15 years. This works out to an additional $502 per month, above what I was paying in mortgage, taxes, and insurance. When you add all of that together, the total monthly cost works out to $1,439.

[…]

The total monthly cost for the brand-new house? $1,444. Which comes out to exactly $5.00 per month more than my 72-year-old house.

Maintenance is the secret challenge of any asset, physical or digital. We have been talking about the Tappan Zee bridge here a bit this week, and maintenance played an outsized role in forcing New York to spend even more money on a new bridge. From Phil Plotch’s book Politics across the Hudson:

However, he also recognized that the Authority probably put less money into the bridge after it decided to replace it. “When maintenance folks know that a capital project is under design and will soon deal with the problems they have been battling for years,” he said. “They often back down a bit and turn their attention and resources to other areas.”

That didn’t work out so well:

One of the reasons the Thruway Authority wanted to build a new bridge in the late 1990s was to avoid replacing the bridge’s deck. However, the environmental review process took so long that the authority had to spend $300 million dollars to do exactly that anyway — after five-foot-wide holes started opening up along the length of the bridge.

Back in the software world, we have gotten much better about quantifying test coverage over the years, but we still seem to lack any means by which to evaluate technical debt. And yet, technical debt from my limited experience is hugely determinative on how fast product features can be launched.

It would be hugely helpful to have some sort of reasonably accurate grading system that said “this codebase is really up-to-date and clean” versus “this codebase is radioactive and run away from it.” Right now, so much of product engineering seems to be making decisions in the dark and discovering software quagmires. There has to be a better way?

Why we can’t build anything? (Part 5?)

Image from Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transit

Written by Arman Tabatabai

We’ve been obsessed with the infrastructure crisis in the U.S. lately and the question of “Why can’t we build anything?”. In case you thought the California HSR shitshow was an isolated incident, think again.

Construction Dive provided some more details around the DOJ’s subpoena of the Honolulu High-Speed Rail Project (Honolulu Rail Transit) last week, which ordered the project leads to open up their books. Just like in California, after decades of debate, Hawaii’s project has been plagued by delays and cost overruns. Today, the project holds an estimated cost of around $9-10 billion, compared to initial estimates of $3-4 billion, and some academics and industry specialists are even saying that number is more like $13 billion-plus. The court order came just after a state-led audit found that much of the cost overruns could be tied to poor contracting, planning, and management practices — just as in California.

Given the similarities here, it’s possible we could see the federal government try and pull back the $1.6 billion it had earmarked for the project if it doesn’t like what it sees. Despite calls for infrastructure improvement, the feds seem to be taking a tougher stance on the use of fed funds for these projects.

Construction Dive also highlighted that the $650 million renovation of Denver International Airport’s Jeppesen Terminal was delayed indefinitely after operators found structural deficiencies in the concrete. Sound familiar? Maybe it’s because in just the last year we’ve seen “structural deficiencies” mar SF’s Transbay Terminal project and DC’s Metrorail extension. Denver’s reclamation project is expected to cost $1.8 billion in its entirety and is a year behind schedule after breaking ground less than nine months ago.

India’s general election might also determine Facebook’s future in the region

Westend61 via Getty Images

Written by Arman Tabatabai

India’s Parliamentary Committee on Information Technology announced it would be meeting with Facebook in early-March to discuss “safeguarding citizens’ rights on social or online news media platforms.” The government has approached social media with a cautious eye ahead of the country’s huge upcoming elections, as concern over the use and misuse of social and messaging platforms in global elections becomes a hot-button issue.

The topic came up in our recent conversation with The Billionaire Raj author James Crabtree. He believes the election will be a hugely important period for social platforms in India. Having experienced a number of major historical scandals, India’s citizenry has a fairly harsh — albeit somewhat selective — view on corruption, and Crabtree believes that if Facebook or others were to face blame for any alleged misconduct, the potential fallout from a political, regulatory, and public opinion standpoint could be devastating.

The prospect of such an outcome becomes even more alarming for foreign social companies as India has ticked up focus on data localization and movements towards a “national champion” policy that will increasingly favor domestic firms over external players.

I love triangulation negotiation

The trade kerfuffle between China and the U.S. is sort of just continuing at a glacial pace. Literally glaciers, because Greenland got involved over the past few months. Greenland power politics is very far afield of TC, but I wanted to point out one little nuance that offers a worthwhile lesson.

Greenland has wanted to upgrade its airports for some time (there are no roads between major cities in the sparsely-populated but huge country). But Denmark, which Greenland is a constituent country, has rebuffed those requests, that is, until the Chinese got involved. From a WSJ article:

After Kalaallit Airports short-listed a Chinese construction firm to build the new airports, Denmark conveyed its alarm to the Pentagon. After Mr. Mattis got involved, Denmark’s government asked a consortium led by Danske Bank to help assemble an alternative financing package.

Officials in Greenland were pleasantly surprised by the terms. “Even Chinese funding is not as cheap as this,” Mr. Hansen said.

Plus this quote:

“He was not into it at all—until the Chinese showed interest,” said Aleqa Hammon, Greenland’s former prime minister, speaking of [Danish Prime Minister] Rasmussen.

This is how you negotiate! Get two larger adversaries lined up on either side of the line, and just start going back and forth between them. This works with Google and Facebook, Sequoia and Benchmark, or any other competitors. At some point, the game isn’t just a deal, it’s also the face-saving that comes from not losing to the competition.

Japan joining the trend of looser fundraising rules for growing companies

Written by Arman Tabatabai

Earlier this week, we talked about how security exchanges around the world were looking to loosen fundraising rules for young companies. The softening of these rules might be indicative of a wider trend, with Japan now proposing revised rules to make it easier for startups to fundraise through traditional brokerages and trade shares of listed companies. While the motivation here may not be to attract IPO deals like it seems to be in the U.S. and China, with the creation of more funding alternatives and with companies opting to stay out of the public markets for longer, national securities industries seem to be trying to brand themselves as the best venue for young companies to grow.

Obsessions

More discussion of megaprojects, infrastructure, and “why can’t we build things”

We are going to be talking India here, focused around the book “Billonnaire Raj” by James Crabtree, who we just interviewed and will share more soon

We have a lot to catch up on in the China world when the EC launch craziness dies down. Plus, we are covering The Next Factory of the World by Irene Yuan Sun.

Societal resilience and geoengineering are still top-of-mind

Some more on metrics design and quantification

Thanks

To every member of Extra Crunch: thank you. You allow us to get off the ad-laden media churn conveyor belt and spend quality time on amazing ideas, people, and companies. If I can ever be of assistance, hit reply, or send an email to [email protected].

This newsletter is written with the assistance of Arman Tabatabai from New York

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/22/can-we-ever-evaluate-technical-debt/

0 notes

fmservers · 6 years

Text

Can we ever evaluate technical debt?

I was thinking about this challenge of evaluating maintenance when I read this deep dive into the economics of old housing by Akron’s head of planning Jason Segedy:

In his own case:

[…]

The total monthly cost for the brand-new house? $1,444. Which comes out to exactly $5.00 per month more than my 72-year-old house.

That didn’t work out so well:

Why we can’t build anything? (Part 5?)

Image from Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transit

Written by Arman Tabatabai

India’s general election might also determine Facebook’s future in the region

Westend61 via Getty Images

Written by Arman Tabatabai

I love triangulation negotiation

Officials in Greenland were pleasantly surprised by the terms. “Even Chinese funding is not as cheap as this,” Mr. Hansen said.

Plus this quote:

“He was not into it at all—until the Chinese showed interest,” said Aleqa Hammon, Greenland’s former prime minister, speaking of [Danish Prime Minister] Rasmussen.

Japan joining the trend of looser fundraising rules for growing companies

Written by Arman Tabatabai

Obsessions

More discussion of megaprojects, infrastructure, and “why can’t we build things”

We are going to be talking India here, focused around the book “Billonnaire Raj” by James Crabtree, who we just interviewed and will share more soon

We have a lot to catch up on in the China world when the EC launch craziness dies down. Plus, we are covering The Next Factory of the World by Irene Yuan Sun.

Societal resilience and geoengineering are still top-of-mind

Some more on metrics design and quantification

Thanks

This newsletter is written with the assistance of Arman Tabatabai from New York

Via Danny Crichton https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

0 notes

theconservativebrief · 6 years

Link

The next fight in Congress over a Trump administration nominee will be over a little-known budget official with scant relevant experience tapped to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Kathy Kraninger.

Kraninger, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the government’s top consumer watchdog, will face the Senate Banking Committee for her confirmation hearing on Thursday. Democrats and consumer advocacy groups are mounting resistance to her nomination, which they see as another step in the administration’s ongoing effort to undermine the federal government’s regulatory apparatus and diminish the CFPB.

Trump announced plans to nominate Kraninger, 43, to head the agency on June 18, replacing acting director Mick Mulvaney. Kraninger is currently the associate director for general government programs at the Office of Management and Budget, where she oversees a $250 billion budget across seven Cabinet departments, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice. (In addition to his role at the consumer protection agency, Mulvaney is director of the OMB.)

Kraninger’s nomination was a bit of a head-scratcher: She doesn’t have much discernible experience or known interest in consumer protection or financial services. She wasn’t on anyone’s radar before her nomination, although multiple names with more applicable experience were floated as potential nominees, including Ohio lawyer Jonathan Denver and National Credit Union Administration chair J. Mark McWatters.

J.W. Verret, a George Mason University professor and former chief economist for Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), described Kraninger as a “mid-level budget staffer lacking expertise, chosen to leave one of the most powerful agencies in the government” in an interview with the Wall Street Journal when she was nominated.

Now Democrats are gearing up for a fight over Kraninger’s confirmation. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said she would try to block the nomination soon after it was announced in June. Banking Committee Democrats sent a letter to committee chair Sen. Mike Crapo (D-ID) asking him to postpone the hearing until the Trump administration sends over documentation on Kraninger they’ve requested in two separate letters to her.

Specifically, they’re asking questions about her role in the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies that resulted in the separation of migrant parents and children at the US-Mexico border, and her activities in relation to the government’s response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and ongoing affordable housing issues tied to the Housing and Urban Development Department. It’s all under her umbrella at OMB.

A spokesperson for Warren’s office said the Democrats intend to use “every procedural tool we have to get answers to our questions.”

The CFPB was created under the Dodd-Frank financial reform and formed in 2011. Its mission is to protect consumers who are dealing with banks and taking on debt, including mortgages, student loans, and credit cards. Under its first director, Richard Cordray, who was confirmed in 2013, the bureau by its own tally handled more than 1.2 million consumer complaints and brought about nearly $12 billion in relief for harmed consumers.

Many Republicans have been fiercely critical of the CFPB since its inception. They argue it is a prime example of government overreach and that its single-director structure places an excessive amount of power in the hands of a federal agency.

Since Trump’s inauguration, the CFPB has become more of a flashpoint, especially after Cordray stepped down in November and Mulvaney took over as acting director. Mulvaney, a former South Carolina representative, while in Congress criticized the CFPB and in a 2014 interview slammed it as a “sick, sad” joke. As acting director, he’s taken a number of actions to reduce its scope and rein it in: He’s disbanded consumer advisory boards, scaled back sanctions on payday lenders, and even pushed to change the agency’s acronym to BCFP.

Consumer advocacy groups and Democrats are concerned that Kraninger’s appointment will only do more damage to the CFPB than what’s already been done under Mulvaney.

She doesn’t have any discernible experience in financial services; her background appears to be largely in homeland security. The White House’s announcement of her nomination points out that in her current job at the OMB, she oversees budgeting for seven Cabinet departments and 30 federal agencies — the CFPB is one of them, but given the scope of her job overall, it’s unclear how involved she’s actually been.

Kraninger has “neither experience as a regulator nor expertise in consumer financial issues,” Bartlett Naylor, a financial policy advocate at consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, told the LA Times at the time of her nomination. “The nation’s leading consumer financial regulator is not an entry-level job.”

There has also been some speculation that Kraninger’s nomination is simply a way to keep Mulvaney in charge of the CFPB on a temporary basis for longer. Her nomination resets the clock on his time as acting director of the agency, and if she isn’t confirmed by the Senate, he gets to stay in. Either way, the confirmation could take months.

“It’s heads we win, tails they lose,” Chuck Gabriel, president of the research firm Capital Alpha Partners, told me recently. He emphasized he doesn’t think Kraninger is a throwaway candidate and may very well be confirmed, including possibly with some Democratic votes. “I think she reflects the downscaling of the weight and range of movement that Republicans envisioned for that bureau.”

Beyond Kraninger’s lack of experience in financial services and regulatory matters, Democrats and progressive groups have homed in on exactly what she’s been up to at the OMB. In a normally functioning White House, associate directors in each issue area within the agency play an essential role in policymaking. In Kraninger’s case, that includes the departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Housing and Urban Development, among others.

Democrats have been pushing to find out what Kraninger knew about the Trump administration’s family separation practices, which took place as a result of actions undertaken by the DOJ and DHS. In June, Warren and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, sent a letter to Kraninger asking for information and documents on her role in the development and implementation of Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, including a description of her role in crafting the DOJ’s recommendations and DHS’s implementation, her communications with officials, and any analyses or recommendations she may have provided.

There’s a chance she had no idea what was happening at all, that all the decisions were made behind closed doors. Or she knew and was involved, or didn’t do anything to intervene, or voiced concerns and was overruled. Whatever the case, Democrats want answers.

Democrats have also asked Kraninger for information on her role in the Trump administration’s response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. In a letter addressed to her in June, they requested documentation related to her oversight of DHS, Treasury, and HUD on that front.

Warren’s office on Wednesday, ahead of the Thursday confirmation hearing, released a 14-page report alleging that Kraninger has a “record of failure” and examining the goings-on at the agencies she supervises at the OMB. The report cites the Trump administration’s activities in immigration policy, Puerto Rico hurricane recovery, and affordable housing.

“The entire case for her nomination rests on her purported management abilities. Yet a close look at her record shows consistent mismanagement, often with devastating results for poor and vulnerable people,” the report reads. “Her record does not justify a massive promotion to lead the federal agency charged with protecting consumers.”

Progressive and advocacy groups, such as Americans for Financial Reform and Public Justice, are making similar arguments against Kraninger’s nomination.

Kraninger helped craft the budget increasing funding for immigrant detention facilities and was likely involved in policies leading to the separation of immigrant children from their families at the Southern border.

— AFR (@RealBankReform) July 18, 2018

Kraninger oversaw agencies which led the disastrous response to the crisis in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. Experts say many people died after the hurricane because of the weak response and the island still lacks reliable power.

— AFR (@RealBankReform) July 18, 2018

Despite calls for delaying Kraninger’s confirmation hearing, it appears as though it’s moving full speed ahead. Banking Committee Chair Sen. Crapo’s office said he’s not postponing it. After meeting with Kraninger in June, he tweeted out his initial approval.

Had a positive conversation with @CFPB Director nominee Kathy Kraninger about her vision for the Bureau, which includes protecting consumers’ sensitive, personal financial information, expanding access to credit, and making the Bureau transparent and accountable. pic.twitter.com/r7Tfx3fwYD

— Senator Mike Crapo (@MikeCrapo) June 26, 2018

Original Source -> Democrats gear up for a fight over the next head of the CFPB

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

0 notes

topinforma · 8 years

Text

New Post has been published on Mortgage News

New Post has been published on http://bit.ly/2k8mz3y

lenders-disaster-updates-servicing-deals-bank-ma

“Sometimes I wake up grumpy; other times I let him sleep.” Kids in NY are sleeping in since the schools are closed today. But if you worked for Deutsche Bank on the mortgage side you may not be sleeping well: the DOJ is probing people who worked in DB’s mortgage unit.” No one likes being probed. Shifts in minimum wage may be causing people to lose sleep. Many cities and states have raised their minimum wages in recent years, but many of those laws leave at least one group out: tipped workers, such as waiters. The gap is most pronounced in Massachusetts, where minimum wage earners make $11 per hour while tipped workers make $3.75 an hour.

“I rob banks because that’s where the money is.”

If Willie Sutton were alive he could probably count the number of new, de novo, banks in the last several years on two hands. But things are heating up, possibly in expectation of an easier regulatory environment. The U.S. is seeing startup banks: eight banks filed applications with the FDIC in 2016. This is a far cry from the peak when you would see 250-300 applications.

One thing non-depository mortgage banks don’t have to deal with is Basel. Bank for International Settlements General Manager Jaime Caruana expects the Trump administration’s approach to regulatory reform to affect coordination of Basel IV capital rules for banks. “This will probably take some time, but we need to wait for the position of the Americans — and we don’t know yet,” Caruana said. The word “limbo” popped up, and no one likes being there.

US bank stress test scenarios for the ’17 CCAR (Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review) came out. As a reminder to non-bankers, since non-depository lenders don’t have to worry about it, CCAR is a regulatory framework introduced by the Federal Reserve to assess, regulate, and supervise large banks and financial institutions. The Fed seems to envision a more severe downturn in economic conditions compared to the 2016 testing cycle. And we’ll probably see more questions about commercial real estate in 2017 since the ’17 CCAR assumptions include a larger focus on commercial real estate prices compared to the ’16 scenarios.

Certainly depository bank M&A continues unabated. In Pennsylvania, the Bryn Mawr Trust Co ($3.4B) will acquire Royal Bank America ($828mm) for about $127.7mm in stock (100%) or about 2.47x tangible book. In Texas Vista Bank ($395mm) will acquire Hamlin National Bank ($84mm). Green Dot Bank ($1B, UT) will acquire prepaid debit card company UniRush, LLC for $147mm in cash and an earn-out of at least $20mm. UniRush has 175,000 active cardholders, offers RushCard and is backed by hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. In Illinois Multi-bank holding company First Busey Corp ($5.4B) will acquire First Community Financial Bank ($1.3B) for about $235.8mm in cash (10%) and stock (90%) or about 2.1x tangible book.

In divestiture news, French bank BNP Paribas will offer 25mm shares of its subsidiary First Hawaiian Bank (HI) as it seeks to reduce its roughly 83% ownership stake down to about 62% and raise an expected $984mm. Dutch banking giant ABN Amro said it will cut 60% of its senior management jobs and cut the number of top executives by 50%, as it moves to cut costs. The bank remains 70% owned by the Dutch government.

Servicing prices influences borrower’s rates.

Let’s see what’s been happening over the last month or two. The talk a few months back in MSR trading wasn’t credit or prepayment speeds, necessarily, but rather the size of offerings. MountainView Servicing Group was the exclusive sales advisor to a $3.19 billion FHLMC/FNMA/GNMA servicing portfolio. The 100% retail originated portfolio consists of Conventional: 100 percent fixed rate 1st lien product, 3.875% WAC, 752 WaFICO, 78% WaLTV, $191k avg loan amount, with top states: Texas (27.2 percent), California (8.0 percent), Virginia (6.0 percent), and Maryland (4.7 percent); and Government: 100 percent fixed rate 1st lien product, 694 WaFICO, 96% WaLTV, 3.78% WAC, $177k avg loan amount, with top states: Texas (20.8 percent), Florida (7.4 percent), California (7.2 percent), and Ohio (5.2 percent).

I’ve seen two Incenter Mortgage Advisor packages; the first was for $1.45 Billion in Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac Bulk MSR offering. The 6,500-loan package had a $222k average loan amount, 4.151% WAC, 90% O/O SFR, 77% purchase, 77% WaLTV; the second offering is for a $4 Billion FHLMC 23,000+ loan package. The portfolio has a 3.952% WAC, 76.6% WaLTV, 752 WaFICO, 92% O/O, 67% SFR 27% PUD, 56% Purchase, and a current escrow balance of $29mm.

Phoenix Capital’s Project Valor: a $2.4 Billion GNMA, 98% Fixed 30, 1% Fixed 15, <1% ARM, 3.837% (F30) Note Rate; 3.408% (F15) Note Rate; 3.134% (ARM) Note Rate, $200k average loan amount, 684 WaFICO, 99% WaLTV, Geography: 9% TX, 9% FL, 6% GA, and is 100% retail. Project Sparta is a $35-60 Million per month flow package. The seller estimates the flow will be on average similar to October through December production; Conventional: approximately $30-$35 million per month, 84% Fixed 30, 16% Fixed 15, avg bal $232K – $269K, 56% purchase origination, 100% retail originations, 90% single family/PUD properties, 91% OO, 42% MD, 40% VA, 12% NC, 750 WaFICO, 79% WaLTV; Government: approximately $20-$25 million per month, 59.7% VA, 36.6% FHA, 3.7% USDA, avg bal $245K – $252K, 82% purchase originations, 100% retail originations, 94% SFR/PUD properties, 99% OO, 39% VA, 36% MD, 19% NC, 705 WaFICO, and 97% WaLTV.

RoundPoint Mortgage Servicing has been selected as the sole servicing partner by Point, for its growing portfolio of fractional residential real estate assets. Under the agreement, RoundPoint will manage assets acquired by Point. Homeowners sell Point a fractional interest in their properties in exchange for a tax-deferred lump sum without interest rates or monthly payments. Within 10 years, the homeowner exits the agreement by either selling their home or buying out Point. Most homeowners use the capital to diversify their wealth, invest in their businesses, renovate their homes, or pay off debts. Point provides homeowners with a brand- new finance solution that aligns homeowner and investor interests and, for the first time, investors can buy fractional interests in owner-occupied residential real estate through a digital platform.

The weather outside is frightful…

This winter has been harsh in most parts of the country. Even California, at least the northern portion, has seen an unusual amount of rain and snow. What are lenders and investors doing in terms of disaster updates? Hey, and don’t forget, if you need a flood map, FEMA’s your place!

In response to the severe storms, tornadoes and Straight-line winds and in response to a Federal Disaster Declaration, M&T Bank will enforce the Disaster Re-Inspection Policy for all Georgia properties located in the counties of Berrien, Cook, Crisp, Dougherty, Turner, Wilcox. The same is true for Mississippi Counties of Forrest, Lamar, Lauderdale, Perry.

Because of severe storms, tornadoes and straight-line winds in Georgia (Georgia Severe Storms, Tornadoes, and Straight-line Winds (DR-4294 and DR-4297), FEMA declared a major disaster area. Loans scheduled to close in these areas may need to be delayed until confirmation of the property’s condition can be obtained. Plaza will reassess the collateral for these loans and prepare them for closing as soon as possible.

The SunWest Mortgage disaster area policy is as follows: For loans submitted with an appraisal dated on or before the incident period end date or for those submitted without an appraisal, Sun West will require an interior and exterior inspection prior-to-funding or purchase of any loans with subject properties that are determined to be at risk. The inspection must verify that the property is sound, habitable and in the same condition as when it was appraised.

Per FAMC’s Correspondent Lending Bulletin, effective immediately, a buyer will be allowed to assume the seller’s flood insurance policy and retain the same rates provided the loan is not a construction loan and the policy states it is transferrable. Please review the updates to the Flood Disaster Protection Act chapter of the manual for specific requirements. Also, FAMC has updated its guidelines to align with FHA’s current 4000.1 policy, as announced in FHA INFO#16-64. The total amount of required repairs must not exceed $10,000 for HUD REO properties insurable with a repair escrow.

NewLeaf issued the following information regarding active loans in the pipeline: Because of Severe Storms, Tornadoes, and Straight-Line Winds occurring in Georgia from January 21, 2017 (incident start date) through January 22, 2017(incident end date), the President issued a federal disaster declaration on January 26, 2017 for the following counties: Berrien, Cook, Crisp, Dougherty, Turner and Wilcox. All subject properties in the areas impacted by the disaster require evidence that the subject sustained no damage from the identified disaster. If the subject property is in an impacted area, with a completed appraisal dated prior to the incident start date, a 1004D re-inspection completed by the Appraiser must certify that the property is free from the applicable natural disaster damage.

Capital Markets: interest rates go up and down

And this week it’s been down. Those who follow the 10-year yield as a benchmark saw its yield hit 2.33% Wednesday morning. Why? Lack of turmoil overseas, perhaps. Or some thinking that the expected “Trump Bump” to the U.S. economy may not happen overnight. Who thought it would? We had the usual small movements between coupons, securities, and maturities, and the NY Fed was in doing its usual buying of $1-2 billion a day. The improvement paused when the Treasury auctioned off its 10-year T-note, but its yield still ended the day at 2.35% and its price improved nearly .375. The 5-year T-note and agency MBS prices improved .125-.250, depending on coupon.

This morning we’ve already clocked in with the usual Thursday Initial Jobless Claims (-12k to 234k; 101 weeks below 300k). At 10AM ET we’ll have December wholesale inventories, as if that stat ever moves markets, but later we’ll have the Treasury peddling $15 billion of 30-year bonds. The 10-year’s yield is sitting around 2.36% and agency MBS prices are down/worse .250 versus Wednesday’s close.

Jobs and Announcements

Compass Analytics is actively seeking Business Analysts to support expansion of the product teams in its Washington DC and Irvine, CA offices. This role will be very hands-on and involve all phases of product management ranging from analysis and requirements gathering to functional design, testing, and implementation. “Strong project management, communication, project implementation skills are required in addition to agile development methodologies. The ideal candidate will have mortgage or finance industry experience, 2+ years business analyst experience, and working knowledge of SQL and SDLC tracking systems. Compass is an innovator in the exciting and growing FinTech industry and offers a unique opportunity for growth and experience, with a casual-yet-focused, fast-paced work environment including an outstanding compensation and benefits package. Interested candidates should email a cover letter with resume to Marketing Manager Sarah Slagle.”

Pacific Union Financial, LLC continues to expand its national footprint and enhance the Distributed Retail management team with the hiring of new Retail Regional Vice President, Ron Agasar. Mr. Agasar has more than 30 years of experience in retail mortgage management and will lead sales efforts in the Northeast Region. If you’re considering a career move and want to explore opportunities with Pacific Union Financial, contact him at the link above.

Flagstar Bank has added a heavy hitter to its all-star team of warehouse lenders. The new team member is Heather Slapak who comes to Flagstar after an 18-year career as a relationship manager in warehouse lending. Flagstar’s been in the warehouse biz since 1991, and under the leadership of industry veteran, Joe Lathrop, since 1999. It offers lines from $1M to $100M with no minimum volumes required to be sold to Flagstar’s wholesale division. Borrowers receive a dedicated relationship manager and a dedicated processor-no phone queues. You can reach Heather at (248) 408-0078.

In more retail personnel news, congrats to Brian Jensen! Inlanta Mortgage, Inc. announced the addition of 26-year veteran Brian as its Regional Vice President of Business Development. Last year Inlanta moved its corporate headquarters to a new building to accommodate expanding staff, added 4 branches in the 4th quarter, and is focused on expand its footprint in Colorado, Texas, and in the North East. Inlanta Mortgage was established in 1993 and has grown to 39 branches in 16 states and over 250 employees. If you are a mortgage professional and looking to make a career change, please contact Brian Jensen at 630-927-0380.

0 notes

joffemd · 8 years

Text

Moody's Settlement and Its Wider Implications for Finance and Beyond

This blog is provided by guest contributor Marc Joffe. Marc also studies and writes extensively on debt issues in sovereign and sub-sovereign markets. His recent commentary on the relative strength of US cities can be found here. The following views are his own, and do not necessarily reflect those of PF2.

~~~

On Friday afternoon, Moody’s settled DOJ and state attorneys general charges that it inflated ratings on toxic securities in the run-up to the financial crisis. Moody’s paid $864 million to resolve certain pending (and potential) civil claims, considerably less than S&P's settlement of $1.35 billion. While the settlement appears to close the book on federal investigations of rating agency malfeasance, the episode deserves consideration because it has something to teach us all about broader institutional failures, and their implications for both the economy and news coverage. Moody's received better treatment than S&P despite the fact that its malpractice was painstakingly documented in 2010 by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. I suspect that Moody's achieved a better outcome than S&P for some combination of three reasons: (1) employees were more disciplined about what they committed to email, so DOJ lacked some of the smoking guns S&P analysts handed it (including the infamous message sent by one S&p analyst to another "We rate every deal. It could be structured by cows and we would rate it."); (2) senior management and corporate counsel took a less confrontational approach to prosecutors; and (3) Moody's carried the water for Democrats at critical times during the Obama administration. Moody's Analytics economist Mark Zandi was a vocal proponent of the 2009 stimulus bill and other Obama policies. Meanwhile, the rating agency declined to follow S&P in downgrading US debt from AAA in 2011.

Having worked at Moody’s structured finance in 2006 and 2007 – but not in a ratings role – I recall that most rating analysts didn’t think they were doing anything wrong (although it is also true that some left exasperated). I believe this was the case because the corruption of the rating process occurred gradually. In the 1990s, ratings techniques were primitive, but appear to have been motivated by an intention to objectively assess then novel mortgage backed securities and collateralized debt obligations. After the company went public in 2001, quarterly earnings became a concern for the many Moody’s professionals who were now eligible for equity-based compensation.

As the structured finance market soared during the early part of the last decade, the pressure to dumb down ratings standards increased. As portrayed in The Big Short, analysts at S&P and Moody’s understood that the failure to give investment banks AAA ratings for the junk bonds they were assembling from poorly underwritten mortgages would place their companies at a competitive disadvantage.

The collapse of rating agency standards is one case of a much larger set of problems that are threatening our economy and social fabric: professionals who we expect to provide objective information prove to be biased. It’s like a baseball umpire calling a strike when a batter lays off a wild pitch. While that type of behavior could ruin a ball game, the loss of integrity by financial umpires has more earth-shaking implications.

Aside from rating agency bias, the financial crisis was also triggered by a spate of dodgy appraisals. Inflated home appraisals, made at the behest of originators trying to qualify new mortgages, also contributed to the 1980s Savings and Loan crisis.

Malpractice by supposedly unbiased professionals also exacerbated the 2001-2002 recession. The values of dot com stocks were inflated when securities analysts issued misleading reports exaggerating the companies’ earnings potential. The analysts’ judgment was clouded by incentives at their investment banks, which profited from underwriting stocks issued by these overrated companies. Meanwhile, Arthur Andersen’s shortcomings in auditing Enron's books magnified the impact of that firm’s spectacular 2001 crash.

So the credit rating agency problem is part of a more generalized issue that encompasses appraisers, auditors and security analysts. It can occur whenever professionals are asked to provide objective evaluations: they can succumb to their own biases or pressure from those who have a vested interest in the outcome of the review. Because the judges usually receive less compensation and have lower social status than those who are judged, they are especially vulnerable to temptation.

And the problem is not limited to finance. Journalistic institutions which have built stellar reputations for objective, fact-based news reporting have let their standards slip, especially during the contentious 2016 election and its aftermath. For example, the Washington Post recently embarrassed itself by hastily reporting that the Russians had hacked a Vermont power utility. Ultimately, it turned out that a computer virus created in Russia was found on a laptop at the utility’s offices. The laptop was not connected to the power system, and the virus was typical of Eastern European computer worms that proliferate across the internet. Adding insult to injury, the newspaper failed to issue a proper retraction when the story collapsed.

Like those working at Moody’s, I suspect that most WaPo reporters didn’t imagine that they were doing anything wrong. They may have been guided by a belief that the public needed to be more wary of the Russians, especially now that they appear to have influence within the Trump administration. Some mainstream media reporters may honestly believe that protecting America from the Russians and from Donald Trump is more important than living up to the ideal of objectivity that had been the gold standard of 20th century news coverage. It is also possible that reporters are influenced by pundits, government sources and political power brokers: there have been many cases of journalists cycling in and out of government roles, so a victory by one’s favored party can offer career benefits.

But whether it’s Moody’s and S&P or a major news outlet, we all suffer when systemically important providers of allegedly objective information lose their bearings. Even the most primitive organisms need facts to survive. Prey that deny knowledge of the position and trajectory of predator movements become dinner. Today’s most complex social organism, American society, needs institutions that provide just the facts in a dispassionate manner. The rot destroying the foundations of these organizations should worry all of us regardless of our position in the financial hierarchy or on the political spectrum.

via Blogger http://ift.tt/2k1Rfbf

#IFTTT #Blogger

0 notes