Investment bankers that ply their trade in mortgage finance expect 2013 could turn out to be a strong year for mergers and acquisitions as current players, flush with cash, look to expand their franchises. But according to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Finance, “outside” money – including private-equity capital and hedge funds – might finally take the plunge this year as well. “PE firms are definitely looking,” said Chuck Klein, managing partner of Mortgage Banking Solutions. But he also cautions that hedge funds are hardly pushovers as buyers. “Hedge funds do...

Inside Mortgage Finance Publications, Inc. announced this week that it has just settled a major copyright infringement dispute with a large national financial institution for more than one quarter of a million dollars. Without admitting any infringement, liability or wrongdoing, the financial institution agreed to pay IMFP to settle charges that it had violated federal copyright laws by making unauthorized copies of Inside Mortgage Finance. IMFP alleged that the financial institution had engaged in ongoing infringement, distributing infringing copies of dozens of registered issues to a group of non-subscribing employees. “We never like to pursue...

The residential mortgage servicing market continued its incredible shrinking act during the third quarter of 2012, falling below the $10 trillion mark for the first time since early 2006. The Federal Reserve reported that total single-family mortgage debt outstanding declined by 0.9 percent during the third quarter, drifting down to $9.926 trillion. The supply of mortgage servicing has been in a steady decline since peaking at $11.179 trillion in March 2008. The agency servicing market was...[Includes two data charts]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new rule implementing ability-to-repay underwriting requirements uses origination compensation as one of the factors in whether a loan meets the coveted “qualified mortgage” designation – but the agency acknowledged that there is some ambiguity in the Dodd-Frank Act and asked for more input before the rule takes effect. To be eligible for QM status, total points and fees cannot exceed 3.0 percent of the loan amount, although prime-rate mortgages can have up to an additional 2.0 percent in discount points. The question the CFPB wrestled with was how to calculate the total, particularly in cases where the loan originator may be getting payments from multiple sources. Dodd-Frank specifically says...

During the final three months of 2012, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitized some $52.72 billion of single-family home loans that were covered by private mortgage insurance, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. That total represented 14.4 percent of the business done by the two government-sponsored enterprises during the fourth quarter – although there was significant variation among the GSEs’ top sellers in terms of the share of their deliveries covered by PMI. Some $8.42 billion of PMI-insured mortgages were pooled...[Includes one data chart]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued its final rule on mortgage servicing this week, with perhaps the most significant change from the proposed rule being tougher treatment on the servicing industry’s dual tracking practices. However, the bureau threw the industry a few bones along the way. The CFPB decided not to require a single point of contact for distressed borrowers, but will require servicers to have “dedicated staff” to handle borrower concerns with their mortgages, something the bureau refers to as “continuity of contact.” The final rulemaking also essentially pre-empts...

Is the Mortgage Servicing Rule Next? The CFPB has a field hearing scheduled for January 17 in Atlanta, and the industry scuttlebutt is that the bureau might release its mortgage servicing rulemaking sometime the day before. Last week, the CFPB released to the press, on whatfs known as an gembargoedh basis, many of the details of its gqualified mortgageh/ability-to-repay final rule on the afternoon before the bureaufs Jan. 10 mortgage policy field hearing in Baltimore, MD. The actual final rule, however, was not...

The CFPB convinced a federal district court in Miami to require a nationwide debt-relief services company to refund up to $100,000 to consumers who were allegedly unlawfully charged advance fees for debt settlement services. State Attorneys General of New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota and Wisconsin and the Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection joined the bureau’s lawsuit, making this the CFPB’s first joint-enforcement action with the states. The bureau asserted that the defendant, Payday Loan Debt Solution...

The CFPB has apparently launched investigations into some of the mortgage lending entities that it had warned last year about their advertising practices, according to a leading industry attorney following such developments. If the bureau has in fact initiated such probes, it “underscores the importance for companies who receive warning letters from the bureau to promptly address issues raised by the bureau,” according to Alan Kaplinsky, a practice leader with the Ballard Spahr law firm. Further, “If these...

The CFPB is apparently under such time constraints to promulgate its various rules under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, it can no longer wait to publish them in the Federal Register. A recent final rule from the bureau says its final rules will now be considered “issued” on the earlier of the rules’ posting on the agency’s website or publication in the Federal Register. The CFPB says the definition of when a rule is issued has legal consequences, and the bureau generally intends to issue rules by...