Dozens of Firms Face FHA Actions

Fourteen firms
have faced administrative actions by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The actions mostly have taken place over the past year.

The actions against the 14 mortgagees included
civil money penalties as well as withdrawals of FHA approval, suspensions, probations, reprimands and settlements.

They were disclosed in a Federal Register filing Wednesday by HUD.

The actions among the 14 companies
included civil money penalties of $17,000 against Allied First Bank, SB; $169,419 against American Home Free Mortgage, which permanently lost its FHA approval; $50,000 against Bogman Inc.; $40,500 against City First Mortgage Services LLC; $3,000 against Integrity Home Loans of Central Florida, which additionally lost its FHA approval; and $5,000 against Putnam Bank.

The civil money penalties were issued for a variety of reasons including improper use of the FHA name in correspondence, false certifications and
inadequate quality control, among other things.

Also among the 14 companies were three that lost FHA approval, including Infinity Home Mortgage Company Inc. due to inadequate QC procedures; the now-defunct Residential Finance Corp., which lost its approval for a year for not following FHA guidelines; and Sahara Mortgage Corp., which lost its FHA approval for a year for failing to pay HUD as required by an indemnification agreement.

USLending & Finance LTD settled for $18,500 allegations that it violated FHA requirements.

Also listed among the 14 organizations were previously reported settlements with Fifth Third Bank; First Liberty Financial Group; MetLife Bank, N.A.; and Reverse Mortgage Solutions Inc.

The filing listed
another 15 companies that settled for $3,500 (except one that settled for $16,000 and another that settled for $4,250) because they allegedly failed to comply with annual recertification requirements in a timely manner.