Mortgage Servicers Are Getting the Short End of the Stick Under the CARES Act
Many of you have read about the power of the president to invoke the Defense Production Act to acquire products or direct the activities of suppliers based on a finding that it is necessary for the federal government to intrude into the commercial market for national security reasons. When the federal government uses this authority to acquire, or direct the production of, supplies (such as ventilators, N95 masks, and pharmaceuticals in the COVID-19 pandemic context), it uses contracts and negotiates, on an expedited basis, prices and terms. Mortgage servicers perhaps would fare better if their services were subjected to the Defense Production Act in order to address the global pandemic’s adverse impact on residential mortgage borrowers. At least then, servicers could seek to negotiate fair and timely compensation and reimbursement of advances in connection with their necessary role in implementing the Congressional mandate to provide forbearance for up to one year to residential mortgage borrowers with “federally backed mortgage loans. Instead, mortgage servicers are required to shoulder the short-term financial burden of the natural consequences of providing forbearance to such residential mortgage borrowers without, in the views of many, the benefit of just compensation from the federal government.
This Of Special Interest provides more detail on servicing advance requirements and servicer compensation in the context of forbearance required to be provided under the CARES Act.
This article was first published in and is reproduced with the kind permission of HousingWire.
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