Banks and other major providers of home-equity financing continued to back away from the market in the final months of 2010 while performance trends generally weakened, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of call report data. Banks, thrifts and credit unions held...[Includes two data charts]

Standard & Poor’s maintained its ranking as the top rating service in the MBS and ABS market in 2010, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis. S&P rated 78 percent of the non-agency MBS issued last year, up sharply from its 51 percent share back in 2009. While total non-agency MBS production rose by just 5 percent in 2010, S&P’s business increased 63 percent, the largest increase in... [Includes one data chart]

The Mortgage Bankers Association has announced David Stevens, currently the assistant secretary for housing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and commissioner of the FHA, will take over as MBA president and chief executive officer after John Courson leaves the association June 1. The AARP filed...

Many stakeholders are still in the dark with unanswered questions despite efforts by senior staff attorneys of the Federal Reserve to explain the complex provisions and issues arising from a final rule on loan originator compensation. Paul Mondor and Nikita Pastor, attorneys with the Fed’s Consumer and Community Affairs Division, which wrote...

Dissent threatens to split a coalition of federal agencies and 50 state attorneys general over a proposed settlement with major mortgage servicers over improper and abusive servicing practices. As federal agencies and state regulators prepare to meet with mortgage servicers for the first time next week, their unity appeared to fray ...

Mortgage lenders that are still using captive reinsurance should give this business tool a second look in the wake of a tentative $34 million class-action settlement between Bank of America’s Countrywide unit and Pennsylvania borrowers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit gave...

The mortgage industry scored a victory recently after a Michigan jury issued a unanimous verdict for Quicken Loans in an overtime lawsuit that has been pending since May 2004. The jury in Henry v. Quicken Loans vindicated the lender after finding that the company had fully complied...

Mortgage lenders may be given a free hand in structuring their retained risk, although how they should do it remains unclear. Regulators are reportedly close to giving lenders more elbow room on risk retention, which may come up for discussion next week when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s board of directors holds...

With the implementation of the loan originator compensation rule just around the corner, mortgage brokers are putting more pressure on the Federal Reserve to delay the rule. The latest industry move is a letter sent by the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals to...

Virginia. The state assembly passed legislation on March 15 expanding the acceptance of electronic signatures in the state. The new law provides that financial disclosure forms, lobbyist registration statements and notary applications for recommission may be signed...