As the mortgage industry continues evolving toward a 100 percent, end-to-end digital mortgage, automation and collaboration are playing essential roles, according to some top vendors. Bob Brandt, vice president of marketing and alliances at Optimal Blue, said, “The digital movement in the mortgage industry is all about automation – automation of the mortgage process truly from end to end: from lead generation to point of sale to processing and closing and the delivery of loans ...

Homebuyers’ “typical mortgage payment” has climbed about 10 percent in 2017 and may climb another 11 percent in 2018, according to a new analysis from CoreLogic. Company analysts attributed the payment change to rising mortgage rates over the past year. Typical mortgage payment (TMP) is a mortgage-rate-adjusted monthly payment based on each month’s median home-sale price. It is calculated using Freddie Mac’s average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage with ...

Although mortgage companies are beginning to pare staff in anticipation of a seasonal production downturn, there appears to be a strong thirst for executive talent, as well as top managers looking elsewhere, according to interviews conducted over the past month by Inside Mortgage Trends. “Calls and e-mails from mortgage executives open to considering ‘a change’ usually spike at this time of year,” said Rick Glass, who runs the financial services recruitment firm that bears his name ...

Mortgage lenders that sell single-family loans into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities continued to stretch the credit envelope during the third quarter, a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis reveals. But the increase in the share of higher-risk lending is still going at a glacial pace, and low-risk mortgages continue to dominate the government-sponsored enterprises’ business. During the third quarter, mortgages in the lowest ... [Includes two data charts]

Nine publicly traded mortgage companies posted a combined $52.22 million in mortgage banking earnings for the third quarter of 2017, according to a new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. The group’s third-quarter results represented a healthy 86.4 percent improvement over the paltry $28.02 million they earned from their core businesses during the April-June cycle. But the aggregate figures don’t begin to describe the state of most of these nonbank ... [Includes one data chart]

Freddie said it plans to close its first investment in January 2018.

A major changing of the guard is now afoot in the mortgage industry...

Credit Suisse and MBIA Insurance Corp. continued their wrangling in New York state appellate court in a $235 million MBS securities lawsuit brought by the bond guarantor in 2009.

Fannie Mae is considering a pilot program to help consumers more easily get construction loans. While the program is just in the early stages of consideration, the government-sponsored enterprise sees the program as a way to increase affordable housing options for homebuyers.

So-called peer-to-peer loans “resemble predatory loans in terms of the segment of the consumer market they serve and their impact on consumers’ finances,” according to a study published last week by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. The warning comes as issuance of ABS and MBS from marketplace lenders continues to grow, with growing acceptance from rating services and investors.