In case you missed it, here’s what happened in reverse mortgage news this week.
SunTrust announced it was closing its reverse mortgage operations. The $172.2 billion national bank closed 419 reverse mortgage loans to date in fiscal year 2011, and had hired reverse mortgage employees from Wells Fargo and Bank of America.
JG Wentworth group officially launched its reverse mortgage program. The new division will operate under Peachtree Financial Solutions. It announced it was getting into the business late last year and it has since been running a small “pilot operation” out of its Randor, Penn. office. Peachtree and J.G. Wentworth became part of JGWPT, a newly formed and privately held holding company earlier this year.
Bank of America said it would sell or unwind its correspondent mortgage channel. In yet another headline for the troubled bank, a spokesman told Bloomberg News: “We intend to sell the correspondent-mortgage lending division or, if a suitable deal is not identified, we will consider other options,”
NRMLA appointed a special financial assessment task force. The National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association appointed a seven-member committee to review the latest draft of the industry financial assessment that would be used to assess whether borrowers can meet the tax and insurance payments on their loans.
HUD said non-borrowing spouses must receive HECM counseling. Changes to HECM counseling protocol were announced by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which now requires that all owners shown on the property deed as well as any non-borrowing spouse must personally receive counseling.
RMD wishes you a happy Labor Day long weekend!
Written by Elizabeth Ecker
