Commercial banks saw a sharp drop in mortgage-banking income during the fourth quarter of 2016 that pulled full-year profits below the level reached in 2015, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of earnings reports. A group of 25 top publicly traded banks (including one thrift) reported a combined $13.36 billion in mortgage-banking income for all of 2016, down 7.0 percent from 2015. The sector had a chance of topping last year’s ... [Includes one data chart]

Late last week, when the Department of Housing and Urban Development pulled the plug on reducing FHA premiums by 25 basis points, it was originally thought that perhaps, in time, the new White House might change its mind. As one Washington insider noted, “There was a feeling that with a little education and time and with the right decision-makers in place, that maybe they would let the cut go through. Now I’m not so sure.” An industry lobbyist – with a deep resume on Capitol Hill ...

Credit Plus, a company that offers mortgage-information services, recently launched a product that can help lenders determine why a loan applicant ultimately chose a different lender. The Lost Sales Analysis product was developed by Equifax, a credit bureau. Among other features, the Lost Sales Analysis from Credit Plus can help lenders determine if applicants closed a mortgage with a competitor. Credit Plus can provide the name of the lender associated with the lost sale and a number of ...

In another sign that the housing and mortgage markets continue to heal from their catastrophic collapse in 2007, the national foreclosure rate in the U.S. dropped by 30.53 percent in 2016, ending the year at 0.95 percent of active mortgages, according to new data from Black Knight Financial Services. “This marks the most improvement Black Knight has seen in any year on record,” the firm said in its “first look” at December 2016 month-end mortgage performance statistics. Also, the inventory of ...

A survey gauging lender satisfaction with their loan origination systems (LOS) has shown mixed, if not downright depressing, results, according to the Stratmor Group. Only 28 percent of the more than 250 lenders that responded to the 2016 survey reported they were “very satisfied” with their current LOS and have no plans to replace them. They were commenting on commercial off-the-shelf and proprietary loan origination systems, the scope of their functions and their track record of ...

Some 53 percent of the distressed homeowners seeking housing counseling in the past year were minorities, according to an analysis by the Homeownership Preservation Foundation. The nonprofit HPF operates the Hope Hotline, which offers free foreclosure-prevention counseling. The hotline gained prominence in 2007 as delinquencies and foreclosures started to pile up. While the number of distressed borrowers has declined significantly in recent years, delinquencies on ...

Fannie Prices $1.351B CAS Deal. Fannie Mae priced its first credit risk-sharing transaction of 2017 last week, under its Connecticut Avenue Securities program. CAS Series 2017-C01, a $1.351 billion note offering, was scheduled to settle on Jan. 26, 2017.  Laurel Davis, vice president of credit risk transfer, said “We saw an overwhelmingly positive response to our first deal of the year from a broad range of investors.” …

With the post-election interest-rate rise sticking around, there’s a growing school of thought that residential originators will finally ease underwriting standards in an effort to boost lending volume. But the way things stand today, that could be wishful thinking. The Mortgage Bankers Association told Inside Mortgage Finance this week that its Mortgage Credit Availability Index shows a “gradual” loosening has occurred, but it credits a greater availability of jumbo product for the reading. As MBA Senior Vice President of Research Michael Fratantoni put...

According to the Mayer Brown law firm, “Financial services companies that hoped for immediate regulatory relief when the Trump administration assumed control may have to wait a bit longer…”

To be sure, individual lenders were all over the map in their reported production trends. A handful of top producers reported significant increases from the third quarter, including loanDepot, which was up 13.4 percent…