Among the nation’s top five servicers, all suffered a decline in their MSR portfolios. Among the top 30, 20 firms saw a reduction in housing receivables.
The Countrywide purchase, completed in the summer of 2008, has cost BofA close to $60 billion in operating losses and legal settlements, depending on how the numbers are counted.
Mortgage lenders face a heftier Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reporting load under a proposed rule issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would implement a number of changes mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act – and then some. The bureau views implementation of the Dodd-Frank changes as an opportunity to improve the data collected under HMDA, ease some reporting burden and modernize how the data are collected and reported, the agency said. The CFPB proposed...
The Mortgage Bankers Association is pressing regulators and legislators for uniform national requirements for testing of loan originators. In a shift from the bank-friendly issues frequently pursued by the trade group, the MBA is calling for testing requirements that currently apply to nonbanks to be expanded to banks. “MBA believes that all consumers should know that every LO, regardless of what type of lender they work for, meets a demonstrated minimum threshold of knowledge of mortgage lending by passing a test,” the trade group said. The changes sought by the MBA would also allow...
In recent weeks, speculators have been pressing their bets that certain publicly-traded mortgage companies could be in for a world of hurt because origination volumes are likely to remain subdued this year and there is little chance of growth through servicing acquisitions. According to figures compiled by Compass Point Research & Trading and public websites, the two most-shorted mortgage stocks are Nationstar Mortgage and PHH Corp. Measured by the percentage of shares publicly available (known as “float”), Nationstar has...