The Federal Housing Administration‘s Mortgagee Review Board (MRB) published a notice today to announce dozens of administrative actions against FHA-approved lenders who failed to meet its requirements. The total amount of originators that used to write FHA-backed mortgages, the report shows, but are restricted from doing so today, has surpassed the 900 mark. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was recently enticed to investigate claims that certain lenders were discriminating against individuals applying for loans. As of today, the MRB is taking nearly 1,500 administrative sanctions against those lenders, including reprimands, probations, suspensions, civil money penalties and, at worst, withdrawals of approval for FHA funded programs. “Lenders should know by now that FHA will not tolerate fraudulent or predatory lending practices,” said FHA commissioner David Stevens. “Any FHA-approved lender that does business with us must follow our standards. If we determine that our partners are not playing by the rules, we will take action — it’s that simple.” Over 900 lenders have been completely withdrawn from annual recertification of HUD/FHA approval while others are suffering serious penalties. The list of lenders that are being punished, but that have not had their approvals withdrawn by the MRB includes big names such as US Bank, Nations Direct, U.S. Mortgage Corp., Strategic Mortgage Corp., Liberty State Finance, Assurity Financial Services, Meridian Lending, North Shore Financial, and Automated Finance Corporation. Write to Christine Ricciardi.