The decline in mortgage applications was driven by applications for refinances, as requests for purchase mortgages increased slightly.

The 4,710 small mortgage lenders wouldn’t have to report new data points sought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for originations in 2018 and beyond, according to an analysis by Inside the CFPB.

The planned $327.16 million issuance is largely stocked with current mortgages that haven’t been modified.

“Borrowers continue to move away from applying for loans fully in-person, as they look for a process combining both high-tech and high-touch,” according to Ellie Mae.

An increasing number of areas moved from “sustainable” home price appreciation to “overheated” in 2017, according to Fitch.

The IRS recently formed a working group comprised of industry participants to address problems with the Income Verification Express Service, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The Senate voted 67-31 last week to pass the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, S. 2155, moving the deregulation debate to the House, which will look for more aggressive changes to roll back the Dodd-Frank Act. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, said the House would not pass the bill without additional provisions that would further relax regulations introduced after the 2008 financial crisis ...

Proposed changes to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act have become a key flashpoint of controversy in the advancing effort to reform the Dodd-Frank Act. The Senate last week passed legislation that would exempt depository institutions that have relatively small mortgage operations from new HMDA disclosure requirements – and some existing ones – that were mandated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The expanded HMDA reporting regime is taking effect for mortgage (include one data chart) ...

A bill to replace the CFPB director with a bipartisan commission was introduced to the House of Representatives last week.The Financial Product Safety Commission Act of 2018, H.R. 5266, was introduced by Rep. Dennis Ross, R-FL, and its co-sponsors include two Democratic House members. The bill would change the CFPB’s name to the “Financial Product Safety Commission.” The proposal would create a five-member commission, whose members are appointed by the president ...

Former World Acceptance Corp. CEO Janet Lewis Matricciani said she wants to apply for the position of CFPB director in an email to Acting Director Mick Mulvaney. The email was sent on January 24, two days before Matricciani left the company, and she said she wants to run the agency because no one’s better able than her to “understand the need to treat consumers respectfully and honestly, and the equal need to offer credit to lower income consumers.” Just two days before ...