The majority of mortgage lenders are forging ahead in 2015 to grow their origination and servicing businesses notwithstanding concerns about compliance and weak consumer demand, according to Fannie Mae’s fourth quarter 2014 survey of senior mortgage executives. The survey found that 88 percent of executives aim to grow their loan origination business by increasing the number of retail branches and loan officers and expanding their ...

Electronic signatures and records have become such crucial components of mortgage lending that lenders need to understand the process and the risks to avoid potential liability, according to panelists at a recent webinar. Several significant regulatory actions in 2014 opened the door to the increased adoption and use of electronic records and signatures. However, lenders face growing pressure from regulators to maintain appropriate measures when ...

The top five lenders in the industry accounted for 33.8 percent of total production last year, down from a combined 40.8 percent market share back in 2013.

More commonly, servicer event of default clauses are tied to the servicer’s financial condition...

Roughly $1.5 billion of the $2 billion in mortgages Altisource Residential held at Sept. 30 are in some stage of foreclosure.

Two other servicing packages hit the market the past few days, including a seasoned $276 million Ginnie Mae portfolio from Interactive Mortgage Advisors.

Stonegate Mortgage saw its share price fall to a new 52-week low of $9.76 Thursday morning on no major news.

2014 wasn’t a great year for mortgage origination volume, but the market rallied from a dismal start to finish on a more positive note, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance market analysis and ranking of top loan producers. Mortgage lenders originated an estimated $1.24 trillion in new home loans during 2014. That figure, which includes home-equity lending, was the industry’s lowest annual output since year 2000, when total originations barely topped the $1 trillion mark. Mortgage production fell a hefty 34.4 percent from 2013 levels, including a modest 1.4 percent drop in the fourth quarter of 2014. The soft fourth-quarter volume was...[Includes two data charts]

The government-sponsored enterprises’ new low downpayment programs received a vigorous defense from Melvin Watt, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, at a hearing this week by the House Financial Services Committee. Republicans on the committee attacked the programs from a number of angles, including raising concerns about default rates on mortgages with lower downpayments and fears of a “race to the bottom” with the FHA. “If you carefully look at other considerations and take them into account in deciding whether to back that credit, you can ensure...

The recent dip in interest rates has sellers of mortgage servicing rights questioning whether they should sell into a market of weakening prices or hang on until values firm up. As always, the answer depends on what type of servicing rights a seller is looking to unload in a market where the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury is once again nearing its low for the year. With rates low on current production, prices are...