Speaking at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington Thursday afternoon, FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco gave no hint how much of a reduction might be in store. He also took no questions from the audience.
Mortgage finance reform is getting more attention on Capitol Hill after Congress gave itself a few more months of breathing room on budget and debt issues, but industry observers say there is increased chatter from champions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who insist that killing them outright would do the mortgage market more harm than good. “There seems to be a bipartisan commitment to encourage private capital support for the U.S. housing market while winding down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises that hold dominant positions in the mortgage market,” noted analysts from Standards & Poor’s in a report last week. In the Senate, Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, continue...
Mortgage lenders far and wide have been laying off full-time staffers by the thousands over the past month as the industry adjusts to both lower originations and a lighter workload tied to the servicing of problem loans. The latest casualties include Wells Fargo, which recently announced plans to cut an additional 925 mortgage “team members” across the U.S.; SunTrust (800 positions); Mortgage Investors Corp. (500); and CashCall (486). Wells cut 5,300 mortgage workers in the third quarter alone, but that figure does not include the latest bloodletting. JPMorgan Chase estimates by the time 2013 ends it will have cut 11,000 mortgage-related jobs. Moreover, according to officials at executive search firms, now mortgage vendors are...
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray continues to show no sign of yielding to persistent industry pressure to delay the implementation date for rules the bureau promulgated in January that will transform the mortgage lending landscape. At the same time, he is again suggesting that the CFPB will be somewhat flexible in its examination of companies’ compliance with all the new rules, if they can demonstrate they genuinely tried to get with the program in time. Addressing the annual convention of the American Bankers Association in New Orleans on Monday, Cordray seemed...
A mortgage lender’s strategic decision to originate only qualified mortgages, in and of itself, will not heighten its fair lending risk, according to joint interagency guidance issued earlier this week. The agencies said they have received numerous inquiries from lenders about whether they would be liable under the disparate-impact doctrine of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act if they originate only QMs as defined under the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability-to-repay rule. Based on their view that the requirements of the ATR rule and ECOA are...
Most mortgage lenders outside of the megabanks will say publicly they don’t want lower Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loan limits, but privately they’ll admit they can live with it, but with one major caveat: how much lower are we talking about? Moreover, preparing for changes to loan software systems and product menus should not be a big deal, several executives told Inside Mortgage Finance. Their biggest concern is...
Real estate agents are frustrated with lenders missing closing deadlines and providing unreliable pre-approvals for homebuyers, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. The survey of about 2,000 real estate agents completed in early October found that some lenders routinely extend their deadlines due to loan processing issues, causing problems for homebuyers. “Some lenders move...
As directed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this year established a three-year sunset period for most reps and warrants on loans with perfect payment histories.
A senior executive at Residential Finance Corp. confirmed that the company’s chief financial officer Nick Hahn left the lender/servicer last month, but has since been replaced.
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