A big topic at last week's MBA Hawaii annual conference was change in the industry. As if residential lending doesn't have enough changes all the time, law firm Morrison & Foerster spread the word that, "The Department of Defense published sweeping changes to its rules that implement the Military Lending Act (MLA). The amended rules significantly expand the scope of the MLA provisions by covering both new types of creditors and new credit products, including installment loans and other closed-end credit products and credit cards and other open-end credit accounts. The rules become effective on October 1, 2015, with compliance required by October 3, 2016.

Don't look now, but the IRS has a new spin on mortgage interest. New mortgage reporting requirements are now imposed on banks and servicers as part of a short-term highway funding bill signed by the president. It will provide the Internal Revenue Service with additional information to reduce inaccurate reporting and detect fraud related to mortgage interest deduction filings. The provision requires the reporting of the origination date of a mortgage, the property address for the collateral and outstanding balance on the loan at the beginning of the tax year. It is estimated it will raise an additional $1.8 billion for the government over 10 years.

Know any lenders that took money upfront to refinance mortgages, but failed to deliver on the service? They may be banned from the industry forever, as these folks were in North Carolina. And the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took action against Residential Credit Solutions, Inc. for blocking consumers' attempts to save their homes from foreclosure. "The mortgage servicer failed to honor modifications for loans transferred from other servicers, treated consumers as if they were in default when they weren't, sent consumers escrow statements falsely claiming they were due a refund, and forced consumers to waive their rights in order to get a repayment plan."

While we're on legal matters, as marijuana has become legal in Washington and Colorado, and to varying degrees in other states, the question of how that cash and income is handled at credit unions and banks has been debated, as well as whether or not the income can be used to qualify for loans underwritten to any federal government related programs (read: Fannie, Freddie, FHA, VA...). The issue may be coming to a head as one Denver credit union is suing for federal insurance.

Did someone say, "training" or "upcoming events"?

Join CoAMP and Bill Kidwell for an hour of informative discussion with two scheduled webinars in August. During the first webinar on August 5th, the focus will be Seller Financing and how you can make it an advantage to your business. Click here to register for CoAmp's August 5th webinar. The second webinar on August 19th, the focus will be on Qualified Mortgage and the Ability to Repay. Click here to register for CoAmp's August 19th webinar.

Brought to you by Bricker & Eckler and INCompliance, the one-day Midwest Financial Services Conference, August 20th in Columbus, OH will discuss the most critical regulatory, compliance and litigation issues facing the consumer financial services industry. With guest speaker Richard Cordray, representatives from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the U.S. Senate, the Mortgage Bankers Association, the Ohio Mortgage Bankers Association, the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Financial Institutions, and other industry leaders will be in attendance to discuss current regulatory and compliance issues pertaining to mortgage lending and other consumer loan products.

FHA handbook policy changes going into effect on September 14, 2015 cover lender approval, re-certification and corporate requirements, all aspects of loan origination from application through endorsement as well as changes to quality control including both origination and servicing. In order to prepare, register for the August 12th TMBA webinar series highlighting the major updates to FHA requirements.

Black Night Data and Analytics has an inexpensive and effective solution that delivers property tax estimations calculated by an independent third party to help ensure greater accuracy, as well as TRID compliance. Join Black Knight Data & Analytics for its webinar Tuesday, August 4th at 11:00 am to learn how its property tax data can help mortgage originators.

Peoples Bank provided information regarding the Federal Trade Commission's workshop October 30th.  This workshop will explore the growing use of online lead generation in various industries, including consumer lending and education. For workshop details, click the link above.

Plaza has a lot of training opportunities coming up! If you haven't already done so, review Plaza's first webinar, "What's a TRID?" for an overview of the new rules. This session will focus on the Loan Estimate (LE) which will be replacing the GFE and Initial TIL.

What's an LE? An Overview of the New TILA-RESPA Loan Estimate: Tuesday, August 11 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific or
Wednesday, August 12 at 1:00 p.m. Pacific.

The New Reverse: Understanding the Changes, Benefits and Risks of the HECM Reverse Mortgage: Tuesday, August 11 at 1:00 p.m. Pacific.

HECM Financial Assessment, Property Charge and Credit Standing:
Wednesday, August 12 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific.

What's a CD? An Overview of the New TILA-RESPA Closing Disclosure:
Tuesday, August 18 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific or Wednesday, August 19 at 1:00 p.m. Pacific.

Plaza's USDA Guaranteed Rural Housing Loan Program and Refinance Pilot:
Wednesday, August 19 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific.

As many of you may have seen in Mortgage Banking's July 15 2015 issue, Jennifer Fortier of the STRATMOR Group published an insightful article called "Debunking Best Practices". Great article and STRATMOR has received lots of interest from our lender community as regards learning more about how to get additional insights into managing and changing their business. Therefore, Jennifer is offering a 1.5 day workshop designed for operations managers, project managers and operations personnel responsible for staff productivity and/or managing and improving processes. In this workshop, STRATMOR will guide participants on how to look into operations issues and productivity numbers as compared to your peers. In other words, if you are planning to change or enhance major systems (LOS), have multiple offices that "do their own thing", or need an organized process for evaluating and making changes to your fulfillment process, then, STRATMOR's interactive Operations Workshop is for you. To learn more about location and dates for this workshop, click here 2015 STRATMOR Operations Workshop.

On August 13th, join the Mid-Michigan Chapter of the Michigan Mortgage Lenders, for its August luncheon. Bill Cosgrove, MBA Chairman, is the guest speaker.  Bill will discuss the current status of National industry issues including, TRID, GSE, HUD and other important acronyms. Additional details and online registration is available here.

The MBA spread the word to, "Get the latest news and guidance surrounding the TILA RESPA Integrated Disclosure implementation. In this webinar, legal experts will explore the remaining implementation challenges, provide the latest news from the CFPB and Congress, and give participants an opportunity to address concerns."

Join MMLA for its breakfast meeting, August 18th where a panel of cross-industry experts will discuss the timely (and timeless) topic of  HIRING, TRAINING and RETAINING staff, including but not limited to Management, Sales, Operations, Servicing, etc. This interactive discussion will provide many great tips and takeaways for members. Find out more regarding SE Chapter breakfast meeting registration information.

It is not easy to keep up with compliant compensation practices these days.  On July 6, DOL issued a proposed rule that would provide overtime to millions of currently exempt workers.  Then on July 15, DOL issued guidance on identifying employees who are misclassified as independent contractors.  Then there are the recent, well-publicized enforcement actions relating to loan originator compensation rules.  But the show goes on.  Mortgage companies still need to recruit, retain and train employees; they need to provide competitive compensation and benefits to attract and keep the best talent.   No easy feat.  That's why MBA is hosting its annual Human Resources Symposium on September 10-11 in Washington, DC.  If you are a mortgage company executive, HR professional or compensation specialist, you will want to attend and converse with peers or share your war stories.

Sun West announced the addition of the USDA Guideline Training video that enables you to easily access the underwriting guidelines for USDA Rural Development loan programs.

Turning to interest rates...Greece? Check. China? Who knows. So now the markets can blame Puerto Rico.

July is a memory, but plenty of lenders had decent months. Now we have yet another week of thrilling, chilling economic news. Today we've had the Personal Income and Spending/Consumption duo, along with Personal Consumption Expenditures for June. But we have more today including Construction Spending and some Institute of Supply Management numbers. Tomorrow is Factory Orders. Wednesday the 5th are the ADP employment and trade balance figures. Thursday we look forward to Initial Jobless Claims, and then Friday, as usual for the first Friday of the month, we have the whole set of employment data for July, and revisions for prior months.

In the early going 10-year risk-free T-note, which closed Friday at 2.20%, is at 2.19% and agency MBS prices are slightly better versus Friday's closing levels.


Jobs and Announcements

Congrats to correspondent lender The Money Source for celebrating the grand opening of its servicing center last week in Meriden, CT. The Money Source will be moving its current portfolio of 40,000 home loans from the sub servicer to its new in-house servicing division on August 1st, and expects to add 200 jobs to the call center over the next 12 months as management expands its servicing portfolio from 40,000 loans to over 100,000 loans with the expected growth of their correspondent business these next 12 months. The Money Source reminds correspondent clients that it waives the EPO invoices if any loan is re-sold back them and forwards payoff and refi leads to their sellers since they don't compete with them (and don't have a retail channel). TMS is a Ginnie, Fannie and Freddie seller servicer that is licensed in 49 states and is currently one of the top Ginnie Issuers in the entire country. To find out more about how you can deliver your FHA, VA, USDA and Conventional loans to The Money Source, visit its website.

"One of the most dynamic, growth-oriented lenders in the country is looking for wholesale and correspondent account executives across the country. Offering a highly competitive compensation plan, this company is primed to become one of the most prominent lenders in the nation. We are looking for individual AEs and are open to speaking with teams. FNMA/FHLMC seller-servicer. FHA, VA direct, and we currently lender in more than 45 states nationally. Expanded guidelines, very competitive pricing and a great work environment will give you the opportunity for success you know you deserve.  Are you at the top of your class?  Do you have what it takes to join this exclusive team?  If so, please send your resume to me at rchrisman@robchrisman. com." All inquiries will be treated in absolute confidence and with utmost discretion, and please specify opportunity. 

Impac Mortgage Corp. brought its correspondent lending expertise into the Non-delegated Lending arena just over a year ago and they continue to expand this origination channel, recruiting non-delegated Account Executives nationally. While some call it Emerging Banker and others call it Mini-correspondent. Impac refers to it as Non-Delegated Lending in an effort to focus on loan origination and reduced underwriting risk with delegated authorities. As a highly successful, well-respected industry investor, Impac Correspondent offers their entire, comprehensive set of programs, products and services to those non-delegated lending clients that have a reduced net worth. If you are interested in aligning your sales skills with a leading correspondent investor, or just want to learn more about the non-delegated lending channel you can visit the Impac Correspondent website or simply send your resume to Greg Austin, SVP of Correspondent Lending.

An innovative new loan-as-a-service start-up to the mortgage banking industry is looking for a strategic partner to bridge them to a Round B capital raise.  The firm has identified numerous investors who have an interest investing much more than they now require.  A partner for the first round of capital, who also has a balance sheet for non-residential loan assets, would be ideal.  This firm's business model is national in scope and is being developed for large scale ramp up.  They expect to raise Round B capital within 12 months of joining with a Round A partner.  Interested parties should send me an email and I will forward your inquiry to the company; please specify opportunity. (This is not an offering or solicitation of a security, only an announcement of a possible opportunity.)