One sign of just how seriously Congress took the issue of consumer disclosure in the aftermath of the mortgage market meltdown is the dramatic escalation lenders will face for violating the new integrated disclosures from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which take effect Aug. 1, 2015. Consider this: Under the Truth in Lending Act, lenders face a private right of action for violations (along with attorney’s fees and costs), as well as statutory penalties of up to $4,000 for failures to ...

If mortgage bankers want to make money they have to sell loans, and loan sales fell off sharply in the third quarter of 2013, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of bank and thrift call-report data. Banks sold $296.4 billion of home mortgages during the third quarter, a 23.0 percent drop from the previous period. It was the lowest sales volume since the third quarter of 2011 and coincided with an even sharper 41.7 percent decline in mortgage banking income reported by the ... [Includes one data chart]

Understanding best practices is useful for commercial mortgage servicers and other industry participants in fulfilling business responsibilities. However, understanding how best practices develop – and can be improved – is not only valuable but also serves the whole industry, according to a new report from Standard & Poor’s. There are many examples of best practices that could further improve performance and revise market expectations – for example, the investor reporting package, loan modification ...

A key factor in the upswing in private MI share of Fannie/Freddie business was the relatively steadier volume in purchase-mortgage securitization compared to refinance loans.

The non-agency MBS market is stuck in "limbo until we know where the GSEs are going,” said Steve Abrahams, head of securitization and MBS research at Deutsche Bank Securities.

Speculators in Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac junior preferred shares will benefit if they can prove loan loss reserves at the two were over-stated.

The integration of TILA and RESPA has "been a goal almost since the time the two statutes were issued, and certainly from the time the good-faith estimate began focusing on loan terms,” said Benjamin Olson of BuckleySandler.

Flagstar, which ranks eighth among all originators according to Inside Mortgage Finance, funded $6.4 billion of home mortgages in 4Q, a 17 percent decline from the prior period.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitized a total of $43.18 billion of single-family mortgages that carried private mortgage insurance during the fourth quarter of 2013, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. That was down 25.8 percent from the $58.18 billion of private MI mortgages securitized by the two government-sponsored enterprises in the third quarter of last year. The silver lining was that overall GSE production declined even more, with new GSE mortgage-backed security issuance dropping 36.1 percent from the third to the fourth quarter. Overall, some 23.8 percent of GSE-securitized single-family mortgages had...[Includes two data charts]

When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac unveil their fourth-quarter 2013 results in February, the two government-sponsored enterprises are expected to again report strong earnings driven by: higher guaranty fee income, one-time gains tied to legal settlements, and a boost from lower loan-loss reserves. But most of the money will be swept straight into the U.S. Treasury. One of the major factors in the GSEs’ huge 2013 earnings so far – the release of deferred tax assets – will likely be...