It appears that looser underwriting has been driven by an increase in the number of lenders participating in the HARP program and copy-cat efforts that allow for LTVs of greater than 95 percent.

A mortgage employee who who merely states general information such as “we offer rates as low as 3% to qualified consumers” would not be considered a loan originator.

Freddie filed repurchase requests on some $361.6 million of 2012 originations during the first quarter of this year, according to figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Trends.

One of the best kept secrets in the servicing sector is a “bifurcated” mortgage program initiated by Fannie Mae that has been gathering momentum over the past six months.

Provident Funding has one word for last week's rate spike: "Ugly." Meanwhile, the TBW MSR portfolio finally gets sold...

The expanded system would include a more comprehensive method for measuring lenders’ loss mitigation activities as well as their compliance with FHA’s default servicing requirements.

The Congressman argues that if the two are not allowed pay down their draws from Treasury “then any future funds sent" to the U.S. should be reinvested in the housing market.

Mortgage brokers may soon get a new source of warehouse credit: First Guaranty Mortgage Corp.

Depositories sold $396 billion of single-family mortgages into the secondary market in the first quarter, down 5 percent from the previous period.

There is a whole other level of supervisory and enforcement authority available to the bureau under a director approved with the consent of the Senate, mostly having to do with non-bank lending.