Loan officers, so far, have been spared the layoff carnage, but that may change depending on where volumes wind up.

The talk has prompted speculation that the FHFA could lower the conforming loan limit to $400,000 or, as conservator of the GSEs, direct them to reduce high-cost loan limits.

The bloodletting in Citigroup's mortgage division may just be starting.

Over the past two years, upwards of $1 billion has been raised by private-equity funds seeking to buy servicing rights in the secondary market.

The jumbo features that Moody's worries about include super senior support bonds, exchangeable securities, principal-only bonds, and pool interest-only bonds.

It’s now being said that consumer complaints may be the biggest regulatory threat companies face in the era of the CFPB, perhaps especially so for those operating in the mortgage sector. So a fully competent compliance management system will be essential for companies striving to comply with the bureau’s mortgage servicing requirements; otherwise, they likely face fines and/or disgorgement. But a solid CMS is only the means to an end, and it all boils down to better communication with the borrower, top industry and vendor...

Staff and members of the Mortgage Bankers Association met with the CFPB in recent weeks to discuss how to determine the “interest rate without any discount” that is used to calculate the starting point at which bona fide discount points can be used to reduce the rate and are eligible for exclusion from the qualified mortgage’s points-and-fees cap. Specifically, MBA asked if the interest rate to be used is the rate unique to each consumer or is simply a rate from a standard rate sheet. The trade group also wanted to know what the...

Mortgage lending trade group representatives are ramping up the crescendo of industry calls for the CFPB to make even more changes to its pending mortgage rules, or for an implementation delay, or both. It’s not easy to satisfy them, though, which some industry participants will privately concede. On the one hand, the industry keeps pressing for numerous changes and revisions, yet on the other hand, complains that each new change or revision further complicates their efforts to get into compliance. Be that as it may, the calls...

The CFPB’s ability-to-repay qualified mortgage rule is steaming full speed ahead with January implementation, and that has anxious lenders appealing to sympathetic ears on Capitol Hill for relief, one way or another. During a hearing earlier this month before the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, raised with CFPB Director Richard Cordray concerns she’s been hearing from some of her mortgage lender constituents about the bureau’s pending mortgage rules, including the ATR/QM. During a roundtable she held...

PHH saw its share price spike late last week after rumors spread that it may sell a large block of mortgage servicing rights.