Warehouse lenders increased the dollar volume of their commitments to an estimated $31 billion in the third quarter, a 3.3 percent sequential improvement, according to survey figures compiled byInside Mortgage Finance. Compared to the same quarter a year ago, commitments fell by 11.4 percent. But a commitment to lend is just that. Many nonbank borrowers rack up commitments, but the real test of the health of warehouse lending is in usage rates. At First Tennessee Bank, for example, its commitments were...[Includes one data chart]

Private mortgage insurers would support a front-end, risk-transfer program that makes greater use of MI, such as the one proposed by the Mortgage Bankers Association, to reduce taxpayer risk, according to MI executives. The MIs are interested in moving forward with a year-old MBA proposal for a risk-sharing program that would allow deeper MI coverage on loans with high loan-to-value ratios, and coverage on loans with LTVs below 80 percent, accompanied by a reduction in guaranty fees. Importantly, this would require lowering the floor on loss factors to account for these lower-risk loans, the MBA said. However, two important things must be...

Some foreclosed homeowners may have the option to repurchase their homes at fair market value following a new directive from the Federal Housing Finance Agency that calls for the two government-sponsored enterprises to relax policies related to the sale of real estate owned properties to defaulted borrowers. The two government-sponsored enterprises until now have required foreclosed borrowers that want to purchase their home from REO inventory to pay the full amount of the unpaid debt on their previous mortgage. “This is...

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two consolidated cases on whether the overtime provisions in the Fair Labor Standards Act apply to mortgage loan officers – and the narrower question of whether federal agencies have the authority to make regulatory changes without using the “notice and comment” rulemaking process. Both cases involve the Mortgage Bankers Association as the respondent. The U.S. Department of Labor argued...

State-regulated lenders and servicers will be required to report new information on servicing and originations to regulators beginning in the first quarter of 2015. Lenders weren’t able to win many concessions from the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, which proposed reporting changes for the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System & Registry’s Mortgage Call Reports in October. The State Regulatory Registry, a subsidiary of the CSBS that operates the NMLS on behalf of state regulators, positioned the reporting requirements as part of an effort to reduce regulatory burden for lenders. “A goal of the MCR is...

The multi-agency final rule implementing the Dodd-Frank Act appraisal-related amendments to the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act is expected sometime this month, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s semi-annual regulatory agenda. The amendments made by Dodd-Frank to FIRREA require new minimum requirements to be applied by states in the registration, reporting and supervision of appraisal management companies (AMCs). They further require implementing regulations for new quality control standards for automated valuation models (AVMs) “designed to ensure a high level of confidence in the estimates produced by the valuation models.” The pending regulations also are...

The Treasury Department noted that QRM standards do not include requirements for loan-to-value ratios.

Some 61 percent of mortgage executives believe lenders are overly restrictive with underwriting standards.

As one West Coast-based mortgage executive told IMFnews: “It can be a very tough space. You need lots of capital."

The sharp increase in industry holdings was fueled by a massive acquisition of credit card ABS by TD Bank...