News Topic: The VA

The court struck down a 2015 update to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which permitted robocalls to cell phones for government-related debt collection. ... Read full article

Refinance application activity last week was the highest in nearly seven years, with more than triple the volume from one year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. ... Read full article

A mortgage industry executive with ties to a firm penalized in a U.S. predatory lending crackdown is being considered by the Trump administration to run Ginnie Mae, according to people familiar with the matter. ... Read full article

The watchdog and three Democratic lawmakers urged the agencies to stop using knowledge-based verification methods to grant access to their online portals. ... Read full article

Prepayments tied to repeated VA loan refinancing activity have had an adverse effect on Ginnie’s mortgage securities that persists despite countermeasures. The government bond issuer is making new plans to address the impact. ... Read full article

The mortgage industry is stepping up its fight against a bill that would raise the Department of Veterans Affairs' mortgage fees to cover medical costs for Vietnam vets. ... Read full article

The conventional market recaptured a lot of the first-time homebuyers it lost during the financial crisis, but service members instead have increasingly stuck with loans insured by the Department of Veterans Affairs. ... Read full article

Ginnie Mae has restricted loanDepot's ability to securitize Veterans Affairs mortgages because of apparent churning of recent originations. ... Read full article

Acting Ginnie Mae President Michael Bright will leave his post on January 16 and will no longer seek confirmation to be the permanent head of the mortgage secondary market agency. ... Read full article

The Trump administration should consider putting much of the subsidized mortgage lending done by the federal government under the government-sponsored enterprises to improve efficiency and transparency. ... Read full article

In hundreds of cases, the prepaid card program run by the bank allegedly sent users’ funds to fraudsters who had stolen their data. The security lapse has now caught the attention of the Democratic senator. ... Read full article

From falling originations to market share shifts for nonbanks and government loans, here's a look at key findings from the just-released 2017 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. ... Read full article

Two lenders have been punished by Ginnie Mae amid its concern that they enabled costly rapid refinances of veterans' home loans. ... Read full article

Weak profits and the threat of false claims charges are keeping banks out of the market for loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs. ... Read full article

Here's a look at what will happen at five federal agencies that support the mortgage industry if the government shuts down. ... Read full article

The U.S. is taking steps to stamp out the practice of servicemembers and veterans being pressured into taking mortgages they don't need, a move that officials say will lower consumer costs and could lead to financial penalties for lenders. ... Read full article

PHH Corp. will pay the Justice Department $75 million to settle a False Claims Act investigation of its underwriting practices on government-insured mortgages and loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. ... Read full article

He is, by Wall Street standards, a small-time banker. But in 2014, with Donald Trump eyeing a run at the White House, Stephen Calk stepped into the big-money world of New York real estate — and a network of Trump associates. ... Read full article