I had never read American Banker before a reference to it in the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR). Last week I wrote about Banker's expose of the continuing robo-signing practices by the banks. Today, there are two references to the magazine in CJR.
The first reference raises the question of just how close were the ties between David Stevens, a former FHA commissioner, and the Mortgage Banking Association (MBA), which is 'regulated' by the FHA. Stevens does not dispute that he asked the "MBA for policy memos, was copied on its internal lobbying strategy debates and asked its boss at the time to devise "an excuse" for him to attend one of its conferences". HUD does back Stevens up. However, Stevens left FHA for a new job - with MBA for about 8 times his FHA salary.
The second reference alleges that the banks devised a reinsurance scheme which netted them about $6 billion and the Department of Justice did nothing about it. More on this later.
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