In an effort to provide clarity and certainty to Federal Housing Administration (FHA) approved lenders, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) jointly issued a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on October 28, 2019, describing broad guidelines about how HUD and DOJ will coordinate using the False
House Financial Services Committee Meets to Discuss Improvements to FHA HECM Program
The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development, and Insurance convened a hearing on September 25, 2019, to discuss the federal Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program, including recently proposed HECM legislation. The subcommittee hearing, titled “Protecting Seniors: A Review of the FHA’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage Program,” included testimony
FHA Tasked With Improving Reverse Mortgage Oversight
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published two reports on September 25 identifying several weaknesses in the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) oversight of reverse mortgages made under the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program (see GAO-19-702 titled “FHA Needs to Improve Monitoring and Oversight of Loan Outcomes and Servicing”; GAO-19-721T titled “FHA’s
FHA Extends Non-Borrowing Spouse Protections
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued Mortgagee Letter 2019-15, in which it announced several modifications to the Mortgagee Optional Election (MOE) Assignment claim process for Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs) with FHA case numbers assigned before August 4, 2014. As background, the MOE is a foreclosure deferral program that provides
National Credit Union Administration Encourages Banking Hemp Businesses — With Some Caveats
In December 2018, Congress gave the hemp industry a significant boost by passing the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized the cultivation and sale of hemp (i.e., cannabis with a THC content of less than .3%). The 2018 Farm Bill tasked the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) with formulating the regulations to govern this burgeoning
FHA Rule Reduces Barriers to Reverse Mortgages for Condominium Owners
After a nearly three-year delay, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has finally released an update to its FHA condominium rules. The new rules, which take effect October 15, 2019, allow for FHA insurance approval on individual condominium units and ease burdensome FHA-insured reverse mortgage application requirements on condos, expanding access
Some of Florida’s Regulatory Restrictions on the Cannabis Industry Could Soon Be a Thing of the Past
On January 17, 2018, Florida’s new governor, Ron DeSantis, delivered news that could supercharge the growth of Florida’s medical-cannabis industry. Governor DeSantis indicated he may drop the State’s appeal from a trial court’s ruling that the statutory cap on the number of licenses for “medical marijuana treatment centers” (MMTCs), and the requirement that MMTCs be
Safe Streets Alliance v. Hickenlooper Provides Good News, Bad News, and Instructions to the Cannabis Industry and the Financial Institutions Serving It
Safe Streets Alliance v. Hickenlooper Provides Good News, Bad News, and Instructions to the Cannabis Industry and the Financial Institutions Serving It” width=”300″ height=”200″For years, the “legal” cannabis industry – operating in states that have legalized cannabis under state law despite its long-standing prohibition under federal law – and the financial institutions that serve
O Canada! What Canada’s Nationwide Legalization of Cannabis Means for American Financial Institutions
Today marks a significant shift in cannabis policy, both domestically and internationally, as Canada becomes the first industrialized nation in the world, and only the second nation overall, to legalize cannabis. This follows the passage of The Cannabis Act in June of this year, which legalized cannabis at all levels of government.
With this blessing
Eleventh Circuit Rules Reverse Mortgage Companies Not Prohibited from Foreclosing on Non-Borrowing Spouses
Mortgagees of Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (“HECMs,” more commonly known as reverse mortgages) obtained a significant victory in an important federal appellate court, which ruled last month that non-borrowing spouses are not protected from foreclosure by the statute authorizing the HECM program. In Estate of Jones v. Live Well Financial, Inc., the United States