Ginnie Mae servicing continued to show strong growth as it posted a 4.0 percent jump in the first quarter of 2011 from the previous quarter and an overall 19.3 percent increase from the same period last year. The top 50 Ginnie servicers reported $1.11 trillion of single-family mortgage debt outstanding at the end of the... [Includes one data chart]

Several of the top mortgage servicers in the industry reported ongoing shrinkage in their portfolios during the first quarter of 2011, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking. As a group, the top five servicers reported a 1.1 percent drop in their combined servicing operations from... [Includes one data chart]

Mortgage origination activity dropped sharply in early 2011 and momentum is pointing toward further declines as the housing market limps into a new buying season. Mortgage lenders generated an estimated $325.0 billion in single-family originations during the first three months of the year, a decline of... [Includes two data charts]

One of the emerging compliance priorities for mortgage lenders will be to synchronize as much as possible their adoption of separate rules for “qualified mortgages” and “qualified residential mortgages” developed by federal regulators following the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Adding to the challenge is...

The American Guild of Appraisers met with Rep. Barney Frank, D-MA, on April 14 to ask for his help in resolving the guild’s concerns with the Federal Reserve Board’s interim final rule on appraiser independence and reasonable and customary fees, which was implemented on the first of the month...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development clearly spelled out that lenders must be discrete in their use of the FHA “Approved Lending Institution” insignia and defined other specific regulations relating to logo use in a letter to lenders this week. Improper use of HUD or FHA logos can result...

California is the biggest beneficiary of the federal government’s massive footprint in the single-family mortgage market, accounting for 19.9 percent of all loans securitized by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae during the first quarter of 2011. A new analysis based on the Inside Mortgage Finance MBS Database reveals...[Includes one data chart]

Following last week’s lengthy and at times contentious markup session where then House Financial Services Capital Markets and GSE Subcommittee pushed through a package of eight bills to bolster oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, industry observers are still working to get their arms around...

Newly issued guidance from the Federal Housing Finance Agency requires Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks to report any fraudulent financial instruments that they purchased or sold. but the guidance also requires Fannie and Freddie to take the extra step of submitting monthly fraud reports to...

A recent survey by the New York-based Reputation Institute found that Freddie Mac is the least reputable company to do business with, while fellow GSE Fannie Mae was named the third least reputable company, but an expert advised that it’s not the end of the world for publicity-challenged companies. The private consulting firm conducted...