FirstKey Mortgage is expected to issue a MBS of closed-end second-lien loans amid growing demand for the product.

Mortgage loans provide good portfolio diversification and match up well with insurers’ long-term liabilities.

Financial services company Charles Schwab is expanding a program that offers discounted mortgage rates in a bid to draw more high-net-worth clients.

The Mortgage Calculator is leveraging multimedia and an in-house technology team to be as transparent as possible with its broker partners.

Lenders are launching or expanding programs for foreign nationals, borrowers with credit events and short-term rentals.

A lack of inventory and rising interest rates are driving a slowdown in availability of rental units. And investors are reassessing their portfolios.

New non-QM MBS; Figure gains new private label partners; CFPB weighs in on TILA case; Guaranteed Rate takes full ownership of relocation mortgage specialist; AG Mortgage Investment Trust bids on Western Asset Mortgage Capital; A&D improves second-loan pricing.

After falling below $100 billion in each of the previous two periods, Ginnie Mae issuance turned a corner in the second quarter. But volume is still far off the numbers for most of the past four years. (Includes four data charts.)

The proposed program could be improved by simplifying communications with borrowers and making changes that expand the number of borrowers who can be helped, industry and consumer groups said.

Allowing lenders to provide downpayment assistance on FHA loans would extend homeownership to underserved borrowers who have a difficult time amassing even a 3.5% downpayment, the former Ginnie Mae president said.