In case you missed it…here’s what happened in reverse mortgage news this week.
Reverse mortgage endorsements were up in June. Despite Wells Fargo and BofA bowing out of the reverse industry, Reverse Market Insight analysis shows seven of the remaining eight Top-10 lenders seeing a 37.9% increase in reverse mortgage endorsements from April to June, and overall, endorsements went up 12.9% since May. The effect of Wells Fargo’s exit is yet to be seen.
Four individuals were charged in a $2.5 million reverse mortgage fraud scheme. Three of the defendants worked at 1st Continental Mortgage in Florida as loan officers; the fourth worked as a licensed title agent and proprietor of Real Estate One Land Services, Inc., in Pennsylvania, allegedly defrauding Genworth Financial Home Equity Access, Inc., and the Federal Housing Administration.
Ginnie Mae HMBS issuance fell to $771 million in May. After reaching $1.029 billion in April, GNMA HECM Mortgage Backed Securities fell 25% in May.
Genworth released a new reverse mortgage Closed Loan Seller Program. The new closed loan program (CLP) allows customers to fund their own loans without becoming full correspondents. Under the program, customers have the ability to sell loans to Genworth while maintaining existing broker responsibilities in addition to closing and funding their own loans.
FHA revised its condo loan guidelines, expanding flexibility. The Federal Housing Administration published its policy guidelines and instructions that clarify the approval and recertification process for condo projects through a mortgagee letter that provides an implementation schedule of timelines for lenders to comply with the guidelines.
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
