A new alliance combines the forces of the highest-paid lobbying firm in Washington with a previous Federal Housing Administration commissioner and the former chief of the Government National Mortgage Association. Services being offered include helping lenders interpret and implement the loan officer compensation rule, risk-retention requirements and new suitability rule.
Patton Boggs LLP brought in $51 million in lobbying revenues last year, according to forms filed in compliance with the Lobbying Disclosure Act and analyzed by the Washington Post. The Washington, D.C.-based firm — which the Post called a lobbying “behemoth” — earned more fees than any of its rivals.
The law firm established itself as a player in the mortgage sector in August 2009 with the launch of a group that consults banks and mortgage lenders on mortgage compliance issues. An alliance was struck up between Mortgage Daily and Patton Boggs that same month.
On Thursday, Patton Boggs announced that its mortgage group has teamed up with The Collingwood Group LLC.
“Patton Boggs’ expertise on legal, regulatory and policy issues facing the mortgage banking industry will be further enhanced by The Collingwood Group’s ability to assist clients in defining their business goals and identifying ways to strategically implement them,” the statement said — adding that the two firms will collaborate regularly on client-focused written materials, events and media outreach.
In a telephone interview, Patton Boggs Partner Rich Andreano noted that right out of the gate the two firms hope to help mortgage firms tackle the Federal Reserve Board’s loan originator compensation rule.
“That had … a combination of both legal and business aspects where, obviously, there were legal requirements that needed to be explained,” Andreano stated. “But then also there was the component of what businesses were doing in general, what investors were doing … In defining a plan you had the legal requirements plus the industry reaction to that plus implementation issues.
“So it was a combination of legal and business advice that needed to … come together.”
Other issues Andreano expects to deal with are risk retention and the Fed’s proposed payment ability requirements under Regulation Z — two issues he calls the “biggest threats” to real estate finance “that I can ever recall.” He warns that if these two requirements are adopted in their current form — mortgage production will plummet and all parties with an interest in real estate will suffer.
Collingwood is also based in the nation’s capitol and was also launched in August 2009. At the time, the company said it was targeting board members and executives of financial services companies to help them navigate through a regulatory process that was expected to become more cumbersome.
Two notable figures at Collingwood are its chairman, Joseph Murin, and Partner Brian Montgomery. Both men served in the George W. Bush administration.
Murin was chief executive officer at Ginnie Mae from 2008 until co-founding Collingwood. Under Murin, issuance at the government-owned company went from $24.9 billion in July 2008 to $44.2 billion in July 2009.
In a conference call, which included both Andreano and Montgomery, Murin called the current period “very transformative.”
“There’s going to be an incredible amount of requirements, compliance, that’s been unprecedented thus far,” Murin projected. “Every entity out there that’s in the housing or the mortgage business is going to have to absolutely go through a period of transformation.”
Clients, Murin said, will need help with interpretation and execution of the requirements.
| Montgomery was Federal Housing Administration commissioner from June 2005 until July 2009. He called Collingwood a “voice of reason” for the industry and said it has “been able to grow fairly well.”
Collingwood, Montgomery continued, has been able to help both FHA mortgagees and Ginnie Mae issuers with problems they encounter doing government business. Montgomery said FHA volume had a “massive runup in volume over a matter of months” without proportionately increasing the staff. “They continue to feel the crush of the decline in house prices,” Montgomery commented about the housing agency. “That’s one of the reasons … they’ve had concerns about their actuarial soundness. It’s the value of their inventory; the portfolio has eroded because of the way they’re required to ‘balance their books,’ so to speak. “They’ve been really feeling the pain of it.” |
Collingwood photo of Brian Montgomery
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