Mortgage originations made by the Department of Veterans Affairs fell slightly from 2009 to 2010, but the VA’s share of the market set an all-time record last year due to the drop in total mortgage lending. The $68.92 billion in VA loans made...[Includes one data chart]

Just over two thirds of the home mortgages originated in 2010 were to refinance an existing loan, a surprisingly low figure given the historic lows in mortgage interest rates seen last year and the still weak state of the housing market. A total of $1.055 trillion of refinance loans were originated...[Includes three data charts]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to inch toward profitability in a market that remains dicey, tentative and uneven – all while navigating between escalating dividend payouts to the Treasury Department and a steep drop in their need for additional capital infusions. Over the last 12 months, the two GSEs have seen...[Includes one data chart]

The government’s heavy footprint in the residential mortgage market shifted slightly in 2010 as the FHA and VA programs gave back some market share and the government-sponsored enterprises captured a smaller slice of the conventional conforming business. In 2009, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issuance of single-family mortgage securities backed by newly-originated loans accounted...[Includes three data charts]

Federal regulators are deeply divided on the amount of fines and the scope of procedural changes that should be imposed against major mortgage servicers to settle state and federal claims of fraud and other improprieties in the home foreclosure process. While no settlement agreement has been reached...

Many of the allegations made in the context of mortgage foreclosures are making their way into bankruptcy courts as a result of the robo-signing mess, according to compliance experts. Bankruptcy judges are now looking closely at mortgage documents, particularly with respect to proofs-of-claim and other affidavits and attestations of ownership and standing that must be made...

Major mortgage servicers are bracing for the worst as a result of the recent state and federal investigations of foreclosure irregularities, securities filings show. Foreclosure-related probes by numerous federal agencies and a multistate task force of attorneys general could result...

House Republicans have voted, among other things, to slash initial funding for the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection by nearly 60 percent in an effort to curb the new agency’s oversight powers over banks and nonbanks. By a vote of 235 to 180, the House passed a new continuing resolution (H.R. 1), the Full Year Continuing Appropriations Act, which would limit...

A West Virginia judge has ordered Quicken Loans to pay a 45-year old licensed practical nurse and her adult disabled daughter more than $2.7 million in punitive damages and legal costs after finding the lender guilty of fraudulent and deceptive mortgage lending practices. In a Feb. 17 decision, Judge Arthur Recht of the Circuit Court of Ohio County, WV, concluded...

The compensation formula that will most likely be used by mortgage loan originators to comply with the Federal Reserve’s final rule is a percentage of the loan-funded balance with a minimum floor, according to the California Association of Mortgage Professionals. In an analysis of the rule, the CAMP said MLOs will most likely choose...