Recent findings from a Fannie Mae survey suggest a substantial digital divide exists between the mortgage lending industry and younger, more tech-savvy borrowers who want to shop for a mortgage online via mobile technology, such as smartphones and tablets. For instance, roughly three out of four lenders surveyed recently by the government-sponsored enterprise do not offer a mobile software application to help consumers shop for a mortgage. “Larger and mid-sized ...

Commercial banks and savings institutions reported a hefty decline in mortgage-banking income from the second to the third quarter of 2015, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call-report data. The banking industry earned $3.793 billion from mortgage banking during the third quarter, a 37.7 percent decline from the previous three-month period. That’s an even bigger drop than the 25.8 percent decline reported by the group of 34 ... [Includes one data chart]

The pay raise that CEOs Donald Layton of Freddie Mac and Timothy Mayopoulus of Fannie Mae got earlier this year likely won’t last long after the House passed legislation this week to cap their salaries at $600,000 per year, what they were making prior to the increased compensation package. The house passed this week the Equity in Government Compensation Act, introduced by Rep. Ed Royce, R-CA, in May, to suspend the multi-million dollar compensation packages approved earlier this year by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Royce said the bill will be the first major stand-alone legislation enacted that deals with the GSEs since they were placed into conservatorship if President Obama signs it into law as expected.

With the Federal Housing Finance Agency preparing to announce whether or not it will change the current conforming loan limit for 2016 any day now, speculation abounds. Although industry groups largely supported an FHFA plan that correlates adjustments of the conforming loan limits to FHFA’s “expanded data” House Price Index, the extent to which conforming loan limits should be adjusted remains debatable among trade groups and housing observers. Back in May, the FHFA noted that home prices were close to recovering from the aftermath of the financial crisis, which caused some to speculate that it could prompt an increase to the conforming loan limit.

Prospect Mortgage said that although it settled, the lender did not admit “to any alleged violations of applicable laws, regulations or rules..."

In the same blog post, Hsieh – who did not talk to the press about the scuttled IPO – described loanDepot as a “unicorn startup,” calling it “one of the very few success stories not from Silicon Valley.

Loan-level data from single-family mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac show subtle signs of credit easing so far in 2015, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis.Average credit scores and debt-to-income ratios, when loans are sorted by purpose, have bounced around from month to month without showing much indication that lenders are making loans to riskier borrowers. The average credit score for purchase mortgages securitized in January, for example, was 750.5. In October, it was 751.7, and the average for the first 10 months of the year was 752.0. Refi loans generally have lower credit scores; the average so far for 2015 is 745.3, but there is some evidence that the credit box has been expanding in...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency filed a motion last week to dismiss a lawsuit that was filed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders in Delaware this summer who argued that the Treasury sweep of the government-sponsored enterprises’ profits is illegal under state law. The complaint stated that with Fannie chartered under Delaware law and Freddie under Virginia’s jurisdiction, the preferred stock of a corporation cannot be given a cumulative dividend right equal to all the ...

Last week, Wall Street groups and some Washington, DC, allies raised concerns that the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB) proposed standard will have potentially negative effects on U.S. securitized products. The proposal could hamper the recovery of the non-agency MBS market, the resolution of government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the full restoration of mortgage credit availability ...

The inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development refused to sign off on Ginnie Mae’s fiscal 2015 financial statement and its restated financial statement for FY 2014 due to lingering concerns about the accuracy of both statements. The IG said it was unable to obtain sufficient evidence to express an audit opinion on the fairness of the $5.4 billion in non-pooled, defaulted mortgage loans still held by Ginnie Mae. The agency also continued to use improper ...