Bids on both packages are due later in the week.

Since the CFPB was born, the cost to originate a home mortgage has exploded...

Non-agency mortgage-backed security issuers and investors were getting more comfortable in recent years with third-party due diligence reviews of less than 100 percent of the mortgages in an MBS due to the exceptionally strong performance of new originations. However, analysts at Morningstar Credit Ratings suggest that most non-agency MBS backed by new mortgages will be subject to full reviews due to uncertainty regarding the CFPB’s integrated-disclosure rule under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, otherwise known as TRID. The reviews help identify and cure compliance issues and protect MBS investors from TRID-related losses. “Most post-crisis transactions carry out due diligence on every loan, and we...

A proposal from House Republicans to treat mortgage loans held in a bank’s portfolio as qualified mortgages received divergent reviews at a recent hearing by the House Financial Services Committee.The proposal was included in the Financial CHOICE Act sponsored by Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX. Treating mortgages in bank portfolios as QMs would provide QM status to loans that would otherwise fail to meet those standards, including interest-only products and mortgages not eligible for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because the debt-to-income ratios are above 43.0 percent. Adam Levitin, a professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, said the Financial CHOICE Act would “eviscerate” consumer protections in mortgage lending.

GOP Legislation Would Exempt Small Nonbank Lenders from CFPB Examination, Enforcement. Rep. Roger Williams, R-TX, recently introduced H.R. 5907, the Community Mortgage Lenders Regulatory Act of 2016, which would exempt qualifying smaller, “responsible” nonbank lenders from CFPB examinations and primary enforcement authority. To qualify, a nonbank mortgage lender must have net worth of less than $50 million; have originated fewer than 25,000 loans or $5 billion in loans the preceding year; and have originated at least 95 percent of their mortgage loans as qualified mortgages the last three years. As currently applies to most banks, a qualifying “responsible community lender” would not be subject...

Wells Fargo handled 20.2 percent of the $841.42 million in agency mortgages outstanding at the end of the second quarter of 2016 that had interest rates between 4.510 percent and 5.000 percent.

“Most real estate agents say high loan-to-value ratio mortgages are readily available, especially for homebuyers with good credit,” said Tom Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys.

With the possibility of investors transferring non-agency servicing rights away from Ocwen Financial, Altisource Portfolio Solution has put an emphasis on providing services to other companies.

Much of the increase in Impac Mortgage Holdings' originations was from the retail channel.

The Federal Home Loan Banks’ Mortgage Partnership Finance program and Redwood Trust announced a number of changes this week to the MPF Direct product. Beginning Aug. 31, the loan limit will increase to $2.5 million and hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages will be eligible for delivery. The MPF Direct program was launched in 2014, with a loan limit of $729,750, the high-cost loan limit for the government-sponsored enterprises at the time. In the third quarter of 2015, the loan limit for the product was increased to $1.5 million. The loan limit for cash-out refinances is $750,000. “We continue...