A U.S. District Court ruled in favor of PNC Bank last week in a lawsuit involving the Home Affordable Modification Program. The plaintiff in the case was seeking class-action status, and other courts have allowed such claims to move forward. The ruling in favor of PNC was a “major victory,” according to the law firm of BuckleySandler, which represented the servicer in the case. Virginia McGann filed...
The nation’s top-ranked warehouse lenders ended the second quarter with $27.2 billion of commitments on their books, a 9.6 percent sequential increase and a handsome 43.8 percent gain from the same period a year earlier, according to survey figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance. The entire warehouse sector, a universe that includes roughly 60 active lenders, posted similar gains as nonbank lenders in the primary market continued to increase market share, which in turn feeds their thirst for financing an ever-increasing pipeline. “Utilization rates have been...[Includes one data table]
Lawsuits filed by the city of Miami against Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo were revived by an appeals court this week. The fair housing lawsuits allege a decade-long pattern of discriminatory lending that caused the city economic harm. The lawsuits were filed in December 2013. Miami claimed that predatory lending by the banks caused minority-owned properties in the city to fall into unnecessary or premature foreclosure, which deprived Miami of tax revenue and forced the city to spend more on municipal services to combat blight. The city made claims under the Fair Housing Act and state law. The city backed up...
The Department of Housing and Urban Development this week republished for comment new proposed changes to lender certification for FHA that would allow for minor lender errors while leaving the door open for government enforcement action under the False Claims Act. The proposed revisions, however, failed to impress mortgage lenders and raised the specter of increased overlays unless HUD makes clear assurances that, barring any significant mistakes, lenders will not be on the hook for millions of dollars for small glitches in the loan certification document. “The language in the certification lacks...
Over the past year, small and medium-sized lenders have dominated the activity in the merger and acquisitions market, but all that could be changing as consolidation fever begins to gather steam and larger, struggling players consider a take-out strategy. Also, the recent announcement that the Blackstone Group would buy a majority stake in Stearns Lending – the nation’s 12th largest originator – has sparked hopes among investment bankers that potential sellers are finally lowering their expectations when it comes to price. An offering book on Stearns had been circulating for at least a year. Meanwhile, analysts who follow Stonegate Mortgage, which ranks 25th among originators, this week suggested...
Purchase-mortgage lending provided most of the oomph that drove the 23.6 percent increase in total mortgage originations during the second quarter, but refinance activity still accounted for slightly over half of total production. Lenders funded $222 billion of first-lien purchase mortgages during the second quarter, a 59.7 percent increase from the first three months of 2015, according to Inside Mortgage Finance estimates. That was just shy of the $223 billion of purchase mortgages originated back in the third quarter of 2013, a figure that included some second-mortgage production associated with purchase loans. Meanwhile, refinance lending rose...[Includes three data tables]
One possible catalyst for a MIP cut could be poor results from a forthcoming HMDA report that shows FHA as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not servicing low-income borrowers very well.
In a recent SEC filing Two Harbors noted that after the second quarter ended it bought $4.7 billion of Fannie Mae servicing rights from an undisclosed seller.
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