Loan officers, so far, have been spared the layoff carnage, but that may change depending on where volumes wind up.

The talk has prompted speculation that the FHFA could lower the conforming loan limit to $400,000 or, as conservator of the GSEs, direct them to reduce high-cost loan limits.

The bloodletting in Citigroup's mortgage division may just be starting.

Over the past two years, upwards of $1 billion has been raised by private-equity funds seeking to buy servicing rights in the secondary market.

The jumbo features that Moody's worries about include super senior support bonds, exchangeable securities, principal-only bonds, and pool interest-only bonds.

CFPB Deploys a New Online HMDA Tool. Last week, the CFPB launched an online tool to provide consumers with easy access to public mortgage information collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. “The tool enables greater transparency by helping inform people of trends in their local mortgage markets,” the bureau said. You can check it out at http://www.consumerfinance.gov/hmda/. Auto Dealers Push Back Against CFPB Criticism. The National Automobile Dealers Association is rejecting recent CFPB criticism of dealer discretion when it...

Representatives of the American Bankers Association and the Mortgage Bankers Association recently met with the CFPB to discuss the applicability of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act appraisal rule to certain business purpose loans secured by multifamily dwellings or inventories of homes. According to the industry’s account of the discussions, CFPB staff stated that while the ECOA appraisal rule is applicable to personal and business purpose applications for credit, the rule is intended to exclude applications for credit involving...

The CFPB recently put out a bulletin warning employers that they cannot require their employees to receive wages on a payroll card. The bureau said it has received reports of employers, particularly in the retail and food service industries, distributing wages solely through payroll cards. However, the bureau said federal law prohibits employers from mandating that employees receive wages exclusively on a payroll card. Further, some employees receiving wages on employer-sponsored payroll cards have complained to the CFPB about...

It’s now being said that consumer complaints may be the biggest regulatory threat companies face in the era of the CFPB, perhaps especially so for those operating in the mortgage sector. So a fully competent compliance management system will be essential for companies striving to comply with the bureau’s mortgage servicing requirements; otherwise, they likely face fines and/or disgorgement. But a solid CMS is only the means to an end, and it all boils down to better communication with the borrower, top industry and vendor...

Staff and members of the Mortgage Bankers Association met with the CFPB in recent weeks to discuss how to determine the “interest rate without any discount” that is used to calculate the starting point at which bona fide discount points can be used to reduce the rate and are eligible for exclusion from the qualified mortgage’s points-and-fees cap. Specifically, MBA asked if the interest rate to be used is the rate unique to each consumer or is simply a rate from a standard rate sheet. The trade group also wanted to know what the...