Roughly 60 percent of the nonbank's fourth quarter originations came through the consumer-direct channel.

"Assuming we achieve our cost, volume and other business objectives, and the market unfolds as forecast, we expect core earnings before notable items to be breakeven to modestly profitable for 2016," said CEO Glen Messina.

Originators that fund billions of dollars each quarter use futures and options to hedge their pipelines. It’s the smaller players that may have encountered secondary-market charges.

Suddenly, mortgage firms left and right are buying back common stock in the open market...

All three mortgage-production channels saw significant declines in volume during the fourth quarter of 2015, but the retail business fared significantly better, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. Correspondent production fell 25.5 percent from the third to the fourth quarter of last year, compared to the overall 15.4 percent drop in mortgage originations over that period. The correspondent channel typically yields a higher share of purchase mortgages than either retail or wholesale-broker production, so it was relatively more impacted by the decline in purchase-mortgage lending. Still, correspondent production for all of 2015 was...[Includes four data tables]

Many small and medium-sized nonbanks have been earning steady profits the past three years, but all that ended in the fourth quarter of 2015, thanks to the integrated disclosure rule known as TRID. At least that’s what some warehouse managers told Inside Mortgage Finance. These credit executives, who spoke under the condition their names not be used, were somewhat surprised by the development, but were quick to caution that about a third of their clients posted losses. The managers also noted...

Guaranty-fee income increased in 2015 at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac despite the fact that average g-fees on new business acquisitions were down slightly. The two government-sponsored enterprises reported a combined $17.33 billion in net income for all of last year, a 20.9 percent drop from 2014. However, g-fee income at the two GSEs was up 8.2 percent from 2014 to 2015, and continued to account for a growing share of their income as their investment portfolios shrank. G-fee income did not climb...

The odds are currently zero that Congress will find a legislative solution to the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this year, which is causing anxiety for the man charged with being both conservator and regulator to the government-sponsored enterprises: Mel Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Moreover, there is a growing concern among mortgage bankers that severe interest swings to the downside could cause a large net loss at Freddie in the first quarter of this year, a loss so large it will force the GSE to ask the U.S. Treasury for a draw on taxpayer funds. And it will happen...

Mortgage delinquency rates continued their upward trend in the fourth quarter of 2015 with the highest percentage of delinquencies recorded for the year, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance Large Servicer Delinquency Index. About 5.98 percent of the $5.194 trillion in home loans covered in the survey were in some stage of default as of Dec. 31, 2015. That was up from 5.85 percent in the third quarter of last year, but down from the 6.53 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014. The number of loans that were more than 90 days late witnessed the largest uptick, growing from 1.62 percent to 1.71 percent. The only category that showed any kind of a decrease was...[Includes one data table]

Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized its “no-action” policy towards market innovators that develop new financial services products, adopting its proposal largely unchanged. But industry experts think the new policy is not only useless but actually counterproductive in that it will likely discourage lenders from developing new loan products in an evolving mortgage market – not foster more innovation. This new policy – created under the CFPB’s Project Catalyst – “is designed to improve access to consumer financial products and services that promise substantial consumer benefits,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “We want to foster a consumer financial marketplace where companies develop safe, innovative products and approaches that can help make people’s lives better.” Under the policy, bureau staff would issue...