With mortgage rates at their highest level in more than two years, the long-awaited boom in mergers and acquisitions may finally be here. But don’t expect sellers to accept just any price. “M&A is picking up,” said Larry Charbonneau, who runs a boutique advisory firm, Charbonneau & Associates. “The big fish want to buy the small ones, but the small ones don’t know if it’s in their best interest to sell yet.” Charbonneau points out...

Although agency originations and refinance activity continued to dominate residential mortgage lending during the second quarter of 2013, a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking reveals that both those components were losing steam. In fact, the only product category to show growth during the period was the jumbo market, where originations increased by 9.3 percent and reached their highest quarterly volume – an estimated $59 billion – since the third quarter of 2007. On a year-to-date basis, jumbo originations were up 17.7 percent from the first half of last year. Agency production still accounted...[Includes two data charts]

Look for an update late Thursday on the sale of Cole Taylor Mortgage. Meanwhile, does anyone care that credit unions are holding 30-year jumbo mortgages in portfolio?

The legal action against JPMorgan and UBS is part of the NCUA’s larger pursuit of 11 lawsuits tied to CU purchases of $14 billion in non-agency MBS.

Michigan Mutual is the latest mortgage lender to announce cut-backs in its processing staff.

Federal regulators dealt the private mortgage insurance industry a setback last week when they opted to ignore the presence of private MI coverage in defining “qualified residential mortgages” under a new proposed rule governing securitization. The new rule will require issuers of mortgage securities that are not backed by QRMs to retain a 5 percent share of the risk. As a practical matter, it won’t apply to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac business as long as the government-sponsored enterprises are in conservatorship, although this exemption would not necessarily be extended to any post-GSE entity that Congress may create. If the agencies stick...

The mortgage industry is feeling immense pressure of implementing the avalanche of new rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Purchase-money lending increased by a hefty 37 percent, climbing to an estimated $163 billion in the second quarter, according to figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance.

Some trade groups, including the California Mortgage Bankers Association and National Association of Realtors are not happy with the idea of lower loan limits.

Borrowers are given the option to either make a single, lump sum draw for adjustable and fixed-rate HECMs at closing or within the 12-month period after the loan closing.