Flagstar Bancorp completed two acquisitions this year that officials said were aimed at maintaining mortgage-related revenues even as industry-wide originations are expected to decline. In April, Flagstar acquired assets of Opes Advisors. In February, the bank acquired Stearns Lending’s delegated correspondent platform. During Flagstar’s recent annual shareholder meeting, Alessandro DiNello, president and CEO, said the acquisitions won’t necessarily ...

The next generation of technology improvements to the mortgage industry could include digital robots, according to analysts at PwC. The consumer finance division of the professional services firm recently published a paper on robotics and “digital labor” options for mortgage lending and servicing. The firm estimates that by the early 2030s, up to 38 percent of existing U.S. jobs will be susceptible to automation from robotics and artificial intelligence. PwC said the mortgage industry is ...

Nonbanks and fintech firms have made major in-roads in mortgage originations and now account for a significant chunk of the market and are continuing to expand through regulatory arbitrage, according to analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. Discussing the so-called disruptors in the mortgage market during a recent podcast, Bose George, chief of mortgage research at KBW, and Brian Gardner, KBW’s senior policy analyst, reported that nonbanks now originate 38 percent of all ...

Lenders cited various technology issues, costs and difficulties getting loan officers to change behavior as barriers to digitizing the mortgage process.

Agency MBS data suggest the purchase market hit its low spot in January and has been slowing building momentum ever since…

Larry Charbonneau, who conducts warehouse lending reviews for commercial banks, said usage rates are definitely improving this spring.

Roughly 10.8 percent of the mortgages were sourced through the Federal Home Loan Banks’ Mortgage Partnership Finance program.

In the first quarter, PennyMac ranked fourth among all home lenders, trailing Wells Fargo, Chase Home Finance and Quicken, according to a ranking from Inside Mortgage Finance.

Purchase-mortgage lending saw a big drop in volume during the first quarter of 2017, but indicators suggest that the sector has been rebounding in recent months and will post a solid gain by the time the year is over. An estimated $205.0 billion of purchase mortgages were originated in the first quarter, a sizable 19.6 percent decline from the previous period. But with an even bigger 44.6 percent slump in refinance lending, purchase mortgages accounted for over half (53.2 percent) of total first-lien originations in the first three months of the year. It was...[Includes three data tables]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last week announced it will assess the effectiveness of its ability-to-repay/qualified-mortgage rule, as per the requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act, and is asking for public input. The CFPB will examine the impact of major provisions of the rule on mortgage costs, origination volumes, approval rates and subsequent loan performance. A special focus is on self-employed borrowers, those with seasonal or part-time income and borrowers with income from assets. Another topic for review is...