The spring homebuying season fueled a relatively modest increase in production of Ginnie Mae single-family mortgage-backed securities during the second quarter of 2018, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending ranking and analysis. Lenders issued $98.66 billion of Ginnie MBS backed by forward mortgages during the April-May cycle. That was up 6.6 percent from the first three months of the year, but 2018 continued to lag behind the pace set in 2017 by 10.7 percent. Given current trends, annual Ginnie MBS issuance in 2018 could fall short of the $400 billion mark for the first time since 2014. The flow of FHA and VA purchase mortgages was up a solid 23.7 percent from the first to the second quarter, bringing the total for the first half of the year to $121.01 billion. However, that was down 4.7 percent from the same period in 2017. Ginnie securitized $75.02 billion of FHA purchase loans in the ... [Charts]

California Business Regulator Warns Lenders, Servicers on Filing of Mandatory Reports. On June 29, the California Department of Business Oversight warned residential mortgage lenders and servicers that their failure to file annual reports could lead to enforcement actions. The DBO supervises state-licensed financial institutions as well as licenses and regulates financial service providers. The agency cited data in its 2017 annual report, which showed that licensee business reports filed last year have dropped 8 percent from the prior year. DBO Commissioner Jan Lynn Owen called the decline “disturbing” and warned that the agency would take appropriate action to deal with licensees that do not file their reports. CA’s Residential Mortgage Lending Act requires all licensed mortgage lenders and servicers to file a report annually with the DBO. Failure to comply automatically triggers a department audit, which ordinarily ...

Fannie Mae this week released details about a pilot program that explores an alternative to how private mortgage insurance is placed on loans the government-sponsored enterprise acquires.

All of the growth in GSE volume came from the purchase-mortgage side of the business…

Some courts have determined that because non-judicial foreclosures don’t technically obligate borrowers “to pay money,” protections from the FDCPA aren’t available.

A retail lender, the Houston-based NRL has increased staff at a branch in Cincinnati by 25 percent this year…

Consultant David Lykken said some mortgage bankers believe LO comp is “untouchable,” but he strongly disagrees…

The American Bankers Association argues the CFPB should acknowledge the bureau is bound by the guidance it issues…

One slide in the GSE presentation is entitled, “The Blob and the Return of the Blob,” a reference to the horror movie classics of the late 1950s…

Collectively, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recorded a modest increase in new single-family business from the first quarter of 2018 to the second, but the bird’s-eye view misses some key details. [Includes three data charts.]