Mortgage Originators
Browse articles from all of our Newsletters related to Mortgage Originators.
June 17, 2013 - Inside the CFPB
Raj Date’s New Finance Company Will Focus on Non-QM mortgages
Former top CFPB officials are banking on the widespread assumption that most mortgage lenders plan to avoid making mortgages that do not meet the “qualified mortgage” standard under the bureau’s ability-to-repay rule. Raj Date, the former deputy director at the CFPB, and three other high-placed bureau alums, Garry Reeder, former chief of staff; Chris Haspel, former senior advisor for mortgage servicing and securitization; and Mitchell Hochberg, former regulatory senior counsel, have created a new consumer finance company called Fenway...
June 17, 2013 - Inside the CFPB
Industry Calls on CFPB, HUD to Make a Consistent Safe Harbor
Eight lender industry trade groups have called upon the CFPB and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide written guidance that clearly spells out that complying with the bureau’s ability‐to repay/qualified mortgage rulemaking will not make lenders vulnerable to disparate impact liability under the Fair Housing Act or the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. In February of this year, HUD came out with its disparate impact rule under which liability for such claims can be established as per the Fair Housing Act. Back in...
June 17, 2013 - Inside the CFPB
CFPB Puts Out Two More Small Entity Compliance Guides
The CFPB recently put out two more small entity compliance guides, one for its loan originator rule and the other for its mortgage servicing rules that were finalized in January and kick in Jan. 10, 2014. The loan originator rule generally regulates how compensation is paid to a loan originator in most closed-end mortgage transactions. That includes prohibiting a loan originator’s compensation from being based on the terms of the transaction or a proxy for a transaction term. The LO rule also prohibits loan...
June 17, 2013 - Inside the CFPB
Industry Wants More Guidance On Temporary QM for GSE Loans
The American Bankers Association asked the CFPB for more detailed guidance on the “temporary qualified mortgage” for government-sponsored enterprise and agency mortgage loans. Earlier this year, the bureau proposed some amendments to its mortgage rules under the Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act and the Truth in Lending Act. Among them are some proposed revised commentaries regarding the standards that a creditor must meet when relying upon a written guide or the automated underwriting system of one of the GSEs, the...
June 17, 2013 - Inside the CFPB
How Do You Thread the ATR Needle? Think “CADI,” Pro Says
Bruce Schultz, head of mortgage operations for SpiritBank, offered attendees at the American Bankers Association’s regulatory compliance conference a useful acronym to remember a good strategy for navigating the rocks and shoals of the CFPB’s ability-to-repay/qualified mortgage rulemaking: CADI: Coordinate, Analyze, Decide, Implement. “First up is coordination,” Schultz told participants in a break-out session at the conference, held last week in Chicago. “Various people that you’re going to need to have input...
June 17, 2013 - Inside the CFPB
SCOTUS Accepts Mt. Holly case; Next Up: Noel Canning v. NLRB
The Supreme Court of the United States announced Monday, June 17, that it decided to grant the petition for certiorari in the disparate impact case of Township of Mount Holly v. Mt. Holly Gardens Citizens in Action, Inc. Specifically, Mt. Holly challenges the position of the Department of Housing and Urban Development that disparate impact can be used to establish liability under the Fair Housing Act, even if there is no discriminatory intent. The CFPB, HUD and the Department of Justice have all previously gone on record as...
June 14, 2013 - Inside FHA Lending
HUD Warns Lenders on Missing Partial-Claim Docs
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued guidance on several FHA issues, including partial-claim documentation and delivery requirements, clarification regarding title approval at conveyance, interest rates for loss mitigation home-retention options, and subordination of partial-claim liens associated with FHA streamlined refinances. Partial Claim Documentation and Delivery Requirements (ML 2013-19. The guidance addresses the problem of many missing FHA partial-claim documents due to lenders’ failure to comply with HUD procedures for ...
June 14, 2013 - Inside FHA Lending
CMC: Fear of HPMLs Could Slow FHA Lending
The likelihood of new loans exceeding the statutory “high-priced mortgage loan” (HPML) threshold due to a recent policy change relating to FHA mortgage insurance premium payments is causing uneasiness among some lenders, said an industry trade group. This week, the Consumer Mortgage Coalition warned that lenders might not originate FHA-insured loans if they thought the new MIP policy would cause the mortgages to turn into HPMLs and subject them to increased liability. Specifically, the new MIP policy might prevent ...
June 14, 2013 - Inside FHA Lending
FHA Questioned on Alleged MMI Audit Anomaly
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is planning to quiz top FHA officials about an apparently deliberate effort by the agency to withhold important information from Congress regarding the true financial health of the FHA insurance fund. In a recent letter to FHA Commissioner Carol Galante, Issa said that the stress test employed by Integrated Financial Engineering in its FY 2012 actuarial review of the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund yielded a more troubling result than what HUD reported to Congress in November last year. In the actuarial review, IFE reported that ...
June 14, 2013 - Inside FHA Lending
HUD OIG to Submit Legislative FHA Reform Plan
The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General is drafting legislative recommendations to strengthen the FHA’s ability to mitigate risk and recover losses to the insurance fund. Testifying recently before Senate appropriators, HUD Inspector General David Montoya said he strongly agrees with HUD on the need for legislation to help the FHA act more quickly and decisively in response to market changes and avoid losses that can accrue during a long rulemaking process. He said the FHA has been too slow in addressing its financial problems. Based on past experience with the FHA over the years, Montoya said ...
June 14, 2013 - Inside FHA Lending
VA Plans to Raise Residual Income Requirement
The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning to raise the residual income limit requirement for home loan applicants by 15 percent – a move that could shut out many veterans who have limited income. The proposal is one of several measures under consideration for the VA’s Home Loan Program, said Carol Barnard, a loan production officer in the VA Regional Loan Center in Denver, during a recent webinar hosted by the Collingwood Group, a Washington-based advisory firm. Barnard is also a senior consultant with Collingwood. This change means that, for a family of four in the VA’s Northeast region, the required income residual could jump to ... [1 chart]
June 14, 2013 - Inside FHA Lending
FHA, DOJ Deliver Another FCA Blow
The FHA and the Department of Justice have ramped up enforcement actions against more than a dozen mortgage lenders in recent weeks for alleged agency rule violations. At least two of the lenders have received notices from the DOJ that they are in violation of the False Claims Act. According to the Collingwood Group, a Washington-based business advisory firm, the agencies have sent notices of enforcement or “administrative” actions to as many as 15 FHA direct endorsement (DE) lenders, some of whom could lose their DE status if found to have engaged in improper lending practices that resulted in huge losses for the FHA. The latest enforcement actions have ...
June 14, 2013 - Inside Nonconforming Markets
Non-Agency Jumbo Market Seen as Ideal
Policymakers looking for a model to replace the government-sponsored enterprises should look no further than the non-agency jumbo market, according to Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. “We don’t have to look overseas to see a well-functioning housing market without GSEs,” he said at a hearing this week. “Prior to the housing bust, the jumbo market was approximately 20 percent of the total housing market. There was capital, liquidity, competition ...
June 14, 2013 - Inside Nonconforming Markets
Mixed Results for New Nonprime Lenders
“People are finally calling us,” Dan Perl, CEO of the privately held Citadel Loan Servicing Corp. of Irvine, CA, told Inside Nonconforming Markets. He said the newly launched subprime or “hard money” lender is starting to gain traction. Perl said the origination business was slow two months ago, but Citadel is on track to fund $6 million to $8 million in mortgages in June. The lender is originating residential loans for borrowers with low credit scores, offering loan-to-value ratios up to 75 percent ...
June 14, 2013 - Inside Nonconforming Markets
S&P Puts Emphasis on Upfront Due Diligence
Lenders’ contributions to non-agency mortgage-backed securities could continue to be subjected to high levels of scrutiny as the rating services emphasize upfront due diligence. Standard & Poor’s recently cautioned investors in non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed securities from putting too much faith into the representations and warranties provided on new securities. “The fact remains that we believe loan and borrower quality are the most important factors for evaluating residential MBS ...
June 14, 2013 - Inside Nonconforming Markets
Redwood Relying on Small Lenders for Jumbos
Redwood Trust’s latest non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed security, its eighth of the year, consisted of originations from 67 lenders. No lender accounts for more than 6.4 percent of the originations in the $460.16 million deal. The non-agency jumbo MBS issued this week received AAA ratings with credit enhancement of 7.10 percent on the top-rated tranche. The top contributors to the deal were George Mason Mortgage, Cole Taylor Mortgage, W.J. Bradley Mortgage Capital and PrimeLending, each accounting for ...
June 14, 2013 - Inside Nonconforming Markets
Former CFPB Officials to Originate Mortgages Outside QM Credit Box
Officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau claim that lenders will originate home loans that don’t meet the new qualified mortgage standard, though industry participants have been skeptical due to the liability involved with such loans. Raj Date, the former deputy director of the CFPB, announced last week that his new firm will indeed originate non-QMs, with an initial focus on non-agency jumbo mortgages. “It’s an example of a great market opportunity where we can ...
June 14, 2013 - Inside MBS & ABS
Agencies Drive Mortgage Securitization Rates to Record Levels in 1Q13, Timing Issues a Factor
New single-family MBS issuance accounted for a record 90.1 percent of home loan originations during the first quarter of 2013, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. An estimated $500.0 billion of new home mortgages were originated during the first three months of the year, down 4.8 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012, as refinance activity began to weaken. But mortgage securitization activity declined at a slower pace, falling just 0.6 percent in the first quarter. That pushed...[Includes one data chart]
June 13, 2013 - Inside Mortgage Finance
Weekly mortgage rates and application survey data as well as indexes for ARMs.
June 13, 2013 - Inside Mortgage Finance
With Refi Applications Falling, Can Mortgage Layoffs Be Far Behind?
When the going gets tough in the mortgage lending business, the tough starting laying off loan officers, underwriters, processors, and any others whose jobs are tied to the origination function. As Inside Mortgage Finance went to press this week, there were growing fears in the industry that declining applications – driven by a weakening market for refinancings – were finally taking their toll with several firms contemplating cutting production staff or already handing out pink slips. Industry executives said...
June 13, 2013 - Inside Mortgage Finance
Home-Equity Market Remains in Doldrums in Early 2013, Performance Continues to Improve
The amount of home-equity loans held by depository institutions continued to decline in early 2013, with little sign that banks, thrifts and credit unions are likely to ramp up their lending in the near future, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. Banks, thrifts and credit unions held some $706.95 billion of home-equity lines of credit and closed-end second mortgages on their books as of the end of March, down 2.8 percent from the previous quarter. Including their $474.09 billion in unused HELOC commitments, depository institutions reported a total home-equity business portfolio of $1.181 trillion, down 7.8 percent from the first quarter of 2012. The unpaid balance of closed-end seconds was...[Includes three data charts]
June 13, 2013 - IMFnews
HUD and FHA offices will be closed on Friday. Foreclosure activity was up and down in May. And the "nerdy" reference behind Fenway Summer.
June 13, 2013 - IMFnews
Fenway Summer to Originate Non-QMs via Wholesale Channel, Retain Risk
CFPB officials claim that lenders will originate non-qualified mortgages, though industry participants have been skeptical due to the liability involved with such loans. Raj Date, the former deputy director of the CFPB, detailed how his new firm will originate non-QMs.
June 13, 2013 - IMFnews
House Grants FHA Authority to Supervise HECM Program by Mortgagee Letter
FHA officials had sought the legislation so they can act quickly to address problems involving the troubled HECM program.
June 13, 2013 - IMFnews
Lenders Fearful of Fair Lending Claims as ATR Draws Near
Speaking at a trade show gathering, the ABA's Chris Lewis urged bankers to educate upper management as well as front-line loan officers about the finer nuances of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ATR rule.
June 12, 2013 - IMFnews
Parent of Bexil American Mortgage Loses Money, Second Top Officer Departs
The latest Bexil American Mortgage officer to leave is Jay Fuller, who held the title of national sales manager.
June 12, 2013 - IMFnews
The M&A rumor mill continues to spit out names. An offering book is circulating on CashCall and at least one other shop, IMF has learned.
June 12, 2013 - IMFnews
HUD IG to Propose FHA Reforms, Will Expand Servicing Audits
The Inspector General of HUD plans to expand audits of FHA servicers later this year.
June 12, 2013 - IMFnews
I Love New York? Not If You Need LO Approvals Quickly
Five different nonbank lenders were asked by Inside Mortgage Finance to name the slowest states in terms of approval times. All cited New York as being among the worst.
June 12, 2013 - IMFnews
BofA Settlement Sends Bank Repurchase Activity to Second Highest Level Ever
Bank of America recorded $10.45 billion of mortgage repurchases and indemnifications during the first quarter of 2013, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of recently released call report data.
June 11, 2013 - IMFnews
Freddie Mac's low activity fee could add more than $2 million to its bottom line.
June 11, 2013 - IMFnews
HUD Employees Will Be Furloughed June 14
Testifying before a Senate panel earlier this year, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan warned that sequestration would limit the FHA’s ability to provide information and services in a wide range of areas.
June 11, 2013 - IMFnews
Refi Specialist CashCall Contemplating Staff Cuts, Is a Sale on the Horizon?
At press time, CashCall founder and president Paul Reddam could not be reached for comment.
June 11, 2013 - IMFnews
Agency MBS Issuance Down Slightly in May, But Still Ahead of Last Year’s Pace
Roughly $148 billion of single-family agency MBS were issued last month, down almost 3 percent from April’s level. May was the slowest month for agency MBS issuance so far in 2013.
June 11, 2013 - IMFnews
Will Non-QM Mortgages be the New Subprime?
One banker said her institution might opt to do only non-Qualified Mortgage lending, just for simplicity’s sake.
June 10, 2013 - IMFnews
Will cash-out refinancings ever return? Meanwhile, a new petition posted on the White House website that might helps GSE shareholders is taking off.
June 10, 2013 - IMFnews
Walter Investment to Restate RMC Financials Due to Servicing Errors
In a new filing with the SEC, Walter Investment said it discovered that its new reverse subsidiary had failed to record certain servicing errors.
June 10, 2013 - IMFnews
ICBA Demands Repeal of Freddie’s Low-Activity Fee
Community banks are getting slapped with a "low activity" fee from Freddie Mac and the ICBA is not happy.
June 10, 2013 - IMFnews
CFPB Issues Compliance Guides for Residential Lending, Servicing
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued two new compliance guides but is warning that they are not substitutes for the underlying rules.
June 7, 2013 - Inside Mortgage Trends
CA County Finds Way to Adopt PACE
A new financing program for home energy retrofits that leverages home equity is gaining popularity among California homeowners despite efforts by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to discourage lenders from offering such products. Called the HERO program, the initiative was developed jointly by West Riverside Council of Governments and Renovate America, a San Diego-based company that works with local governments in designing low-cost financing programs for home and business owners that want to ...
June 7, 2013 - Inside Mortgage Trends
Traffic Jam in New York LO Approvals
Residential lenders tend to like the mortgage market in the state of New York because home values there have been steadily improving for years, especially in Manhattan and surrounding areas within a decent commuting distance to the city. But for nonbanks seeking licensing approvals for their loan officers, they would like nothing more than to tell state regulators to take a hike. According to interviews with mortgage executives and some of their attorneys, the Empire State is the pits when it comes to ...
June 7, 2013 - IMFnews
Don't put too much stock in the new government figures on mortgage hiring. Some firms are cutting back like Pacific Union Financial.
June 7, 2013 - IMFnews
Despite White House Push, HARP 3.0 Likely is Going Nowhere
The Obama administration has mounted a public relations push, including a recent White House social media buzz, pushing for the HARP 3.0 program.
June 7, 2013 - IMFnews
CFPB’s Changes to Points and Fees Makes Calculating Compensation Easier
By excluding from the points and fees calculation compensation paid by creditors and mortgage brokers to their employees, the bureau prevents some double counting.
June 6, 2013 - Inside Mortgage Finance
Weekly mortgage rates and application survey data as well as indexes for ARMs.
June 6, 2013 - IMFnews
Will the nation's megabanks begin shedding mortgage workers if loan applications don't rise soon?
June 6, 2013 - IMFnews
Broker Trade Group Vows to Sue CFPB Over ATR Amendments
The National Association of Independent Housing Professionals believes there is an anti-broker bias at the CFPB, citing new QM adjustments.
June 6, 2013 - IMFnews
Ex-CFPB Deputy Director Raj Date Launches Firm to Fund Non-QM Mortgages
Raj Date's new mortgage firm bills itself as a consumer finance company and is stacked with former high-level employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
June 6, 2013 - IMFnews
More Details on the Corker-Warner GSE Bill, Fannie/Freddie Shareholders Get A Break
The draft includes numerous provisions designed to ensure access to the revamped secondary market for credit unions and community banks with less than $10 billion in assets.
June 5, 2013 - IMFnews
Is a scandal brewing at FHA concerning how it handled the independent audit of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance fund or is it "politics"?
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Poll
What should be done to “reform” Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s position in the mortgage market?
- Wind the two GSEs down as quickly as possible while setting up some new government guarantee program for conservatively underwritten conventional mortgages.
25%
- Let the two GSEs continue to funnel money to the Treasury while developing a plan to take them out of conservatorship as private companies.
52%
- Do nothing since the housing market is too dependent on the two GSEs and Congress is unlikely to agree on a major change in the status quo anytime soon.
23%
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- GSE Shareholders Sue U.S. in Claims Court, Want $41 Billion in Damages
