The data to be reported under the CFPB’s proposal likely will inflame the current fair lending regulatory environment.

Rep. Ed Royce of California: "Money coming in from the GSEs should go to the taxpayers instead of a slush fund for ideological housing groups to play around with.”

New Penn also reorganized its origination channels, consolidating wholesale and correspondent, while adding a mini-correspondent business line.

A proposed FHA administrative fee as high as 4 basis points to fund quality assurance enforcement and technology upgrades also went down in flames.

Jumbo mortgage lending and securitization remained one of the bright spots in the home-loan business during the third quarter of 2014, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. A total of $81.8 billion in mortgages exceeding the traditional $417,000 conforming loan limit were produced during the third quarter, up 15.4 percent from the second quarter of 2014. Total mortgage originations were up 11.3 percent over the same period. Total jumbo activity included...[Includes three data charts]

Quicken Loans, the nation’s largest nonbank lender, recently offered a lender-paid mortgage insurance “sale” through loan brokers, committing $100 million to the effort and wrapping up the promotion in roughly 60 hours. According to Tod Highfield, vice president of loan production at Quicken, the sale wasn’t designed to hit any volume targets per se, but was meant to heighten the firm’s profile among certain segments of the origination market, namely brokers, credit unions and community banks. The offer was pitched...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this week officially announced 97 percent loan-to-value ratio programs to a mixed industry response. Fannie’s low-downpayment option will be available through its MyCommunityMortgage program, as well as for refinances and other non-MCM mortgages. Freddie will offer its 3 percent downpayment product as a purchase or no-cash-out refinance in its Home Possible Advantage program. The biggest difference between the two is...

Democrats in Congress and consumer advocates remain concerned about tight underwriting standards for mortgages, particularly due to overlays established by lenders. However, at a hearing this week by a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, there was a lack of consensus on what causes underwriting overlays. “Instead of matching the creditworthy borrower at the lower end of the distribution with affordable loans, these borrowers are being cut out of the market entirely,” said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, chairman of the Banking Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation and Community Development. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, suggested...

But there's one little wrinkle: the GSEs cannot pass the cost of funding the HTF onto lenders…

The migration of mortgage servicing rights from “more tightly to less tightly regulated parts of the financial system” should be addressed by regulators, according to the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research. The OFR, which was created by the Dodd-Frank Act to serve the Financial Stability Oversight Council, said Basel capital requirements have created incentives for banks to sell MSRs to nonbanks. In its annual report, the OFR cautioned that nonbanks aren’t as well regulated as banks. “Mortgage servicing activity and the accompanying risks appear...