Volume 29 - Number 7
February 17, 2012
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Mortgage Brokers Carry Significant Portion Of Increased Origination Volume in Late 2011
Loan production was up sharply in the wholesale mortgage business late last year, despite the high-profile retreat from the sector by some major lenders. A new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis reveals that wholesale production jumped 22.4 percent from the third to the fourth quarter of last year, posting a bigger gain than the 17.0 percent increase in retail originations. While the broker channel saw the biggest increase – a hefty 48.5 percent jump that raised its market share back to double digits – the correspondent business also posted a solid 14.9 percent gain in volume. Despite the fourth...
Fearful of Winning, City of St. Paul Drops Disparate Impact Case from SCOTUS Docket
In an unusual legal development, the City of St. Paul, MN, late last week suddenly removed its challenge in a case before the Supreme Court of the United States that could have produced a definitive ruling on the disparate impact theory of lending discrimination under the Fair Housing Act. What’s unusual in Magner v. Gallagher is that the city believes it would have prevailed in the nation’s highest court – but opted to ask for dismissal because city leaders came to the conclusion that a victory could substantially undermine important civil rights enforcement in housing throughout the nation. The city expects to...
House Democrats Dispute FHFA Study That Principal Reduction Would Cost $100 Billion, Demand Answers
The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s own data prove that reducing the principal owed on underwater Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans would actually save taxpayers money, contrary to the agency’s position that writedowns are against taxpayer interests, according to House Democrats. In a letter last week to FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco, Reps. Elijah Cummings, D-MD, and John Tierney, D-MA, labeled the agency’s report justifying its policy against principal reduction as “seriously deficient and misleading.” “We understand that the FHFA is not part of the Obama administration, and that you do not take...
HUD Combines Settlement Cash, Annual Premium Hikes To Stabilize FHA Fund, Avoid Potential Taxpayer Rescue
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is going all out to bolster FHA’s capital reserves with budgetary proposals to increase annual premiums beyond the 10-basis points hike authorized by Congress late last year. The proposed premium increases are expected to complement the $1 billion that Bank of America has agreed to pay to resolve claims against the bank and its subsidiary, Countrywide Financial Corp., for alleged underwriting and mortgage origination fraud. The BofA settlement, half of which is a penalty paid directly to the FHA, is part of a $25 billion agreement among 49 state...
Banks Paying Now and Probably Paying Later After Receiving Limited Release from Liability in Settlement
While the multistate servicing settlement reached by 49 states, federal officials and the nation’s five largest servicers gets the state and federal attorneys off the banks’ backs in regards to servicing and foreclosure, the banks are still wide open to servicing lawsuits from individuals, criminal charges and litigation over their securitization activities. “This is only one part of a long resolution process,” said Richard Andreano, practice leader of Ballard Spahr’s mortgage banking group. Despite complaints from a wide swath of consumer protection groups that the $25 billion in penalties to be...
Supervision and Enforcement Expenditures To Dominate CFPB Budget This Year and Next
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is on course to spend nearly half a billion dollars in 2013, half of which is projected to be devoted to supervision and enforcement, according to the budget proposal released by the Obama administration this week. The CFPB breaks down its expenditures into three categories, the largest of which is devoted to supervision, enforcement, fair lending and equal opportunity (SEFLEO), with projected funding to exceed the other two categories combined. After spending approximately $60 million in 2011, the SEFLEO bucket is budgeted at $214 million for 2012 and $261...
The Mortgage Market at a Glance
Weekly mortgage rates and application survey data as well as indexes for ARMs.
Upcoming Webinars
Mortgage Beat
- FHA Third-Party Originator Sponsors Warned by HUD
- Free Story from Inside Nonconforming Markets on Investor Interest in Vintage Non-Agency MBS
- New CFPB Budget Emphasizes Enforcement and Supervision
- Senate, House Bills Would Authorize GSEs to Rent REOs
- HUD to Raise Premiums to Bolster FHA Capital Reserves
Industry Reports
Poll
Most Popular Stories
- Mortgage Brokers Carry Significant Portion Of Increased Origination Volume in Late 2011
- What Kind of Mods are on the Multistate Menu?
- HUD to Raise Premiums to Bolster FHA Capital Reserves
- Private MI Regains Some Market Share in 2011, Radian Tops Industry Ranking for First Time
- Looking at HUD’s Proposed Budget for 2013
