The CFPB and the Federal Housing Finance Agency last week for the first time released survey results from the National Survey of Mortgage Originations, a loan-level dataset the two agencies administer jointly. The quarterly survey queries borrowers about their experiences getting a mortgage, their perceptions of the mortgage market, and future expectations among others. The data cover closed-end first-lien residential mortgages newly reported to one of the ...

S&P Global Ratings last week urged mortgage servicers to continue to follow the best practices established after the financial crisis, even as some federal regulators are adopting less assertive regulatory approaches. “While we believe the regulatory landscape has changed and that these actions offer some promising developments for servicers, this overture could still prelude some hurdles,” an S&P report said. “Since servicers have invested considerable capital ...

An Illinois-based mortgage company will pay $1.2 million in restitution to consumers after a state investigation found a company’s branch manager defrauded consumers. Diamond Residential Mortgage Corp., Lake Forest, IL, recently settled with Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, resolving a mortgage fraud allegation. Diamond’s Springfield branch manager, Chris Schaller ...

Fannie Mae’s last Connecticut Avenue Securities credit-risk transfer transaction of the year featured its first use of a structure geared toward attracting more investors. CAS Series 2018-R07, a $922 million offering, is Fannie’s first risk-transfer deal involving a real estate mortgage investment conduit (REMIC). Both Fannie and Freddie see REMICs as a key to unlocking greater participation by real estate investment trusts and offshore investors. Freddie issued its first CRT using a REMIC ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders in a class action suit are urging U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth to reject the government’s request to reconsider his opinion. On Sept. 28, Royce ruled that the Treasury sweep breached an implied covenant of good faith. That ruling paved the way for shareholders to continue their case against the government. But the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the GSEs are challenging that ruling. They filed a motion on Oct. 15 asking for ...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s annual report on housing showed that Freddie Mac fell short of meeting two of its four single-family affordable housing goals for 2017. The GSE came close but didn’t meet the low-income and very low-income purchase goals. The low-income goal was 24.0 percent and Freddie came in at 23.2 percent. The very low-income purchase target was 6.0 percent and Freddie was at 5.7 percent. The FHFA recently notified Freddie of the shortage ...

More needs to be done to incorporate affordable rental units into all geographic areas, according to Freddie Mac, which released a series of white papers last week focusing on the underserved multifamily housing markets. The GSE is publishing a total of eight papers as part of its duty-to-serve initiative to bring the issue of affordable apartments to the forefront. One of the papers explored how state housing finance agencies help guide low-income housing tax credit investment to high-income ...

PrimeLending is churning through loan originators, recruiting strong candidates and letting go of “non-performers” as lenders battle for purchase mortgages. In recent months, the retail lender owned by PlainsCapital Bank hired about 250 LOs and released about 200 others, according to Alan White, chairman of PlainsCapital Bank and co-CEO and vice chairman of Hilltop Holdings, which owns the bank. “We’ve been able to upgrade our staff,” he said during Hilltop’s earnings call ...

First Horizon National Corp. is seeing strong profits from its warehouse lending efforts. Loans to mortgage companies are the bank holding company’s most profitable lending business, according to officials at First Horizon. Warehouse lending is completed through the company’s banking subsidiary, First Tennessee. As of the end of the second quarter, First Tennessee had $3.0 billion in warehouse lending commitments, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. BJ Losch, an executive ...

The profit picture varied widely among the shrinking number of publicly-traded nonbank mortgage lenders during the third quarter. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis reveals that seven companies generated a total of $235.45 million from their mortgage banking businesses during the third quarter. That was up 14.8 percent from the previous period largely because New Residential Mortgage increased its profits and Impac cut its losses. An eighth nonbank ... [Includes one data chart]