The CFPB has released the first version of the 2013 Dodd-Frank Mortgage Rules Readiness Guide, which provides a set of criteria and preparation procedures for residential mortgage lenders and originators. The guide’s purposes are to help regulated entities comply with the mortgage rules, highlight key issue areas that may be closely examined during a review, and focus the industry and examiners on key elements of a compliance management system that may warrant review, modification, or other enhancement. The guide...

Banking Industry Reps Ask CFPB to Delay Implementing Mortgage Rules. The CFPB should delay the January 2014 effective dates of several pending mortgage rules, a number of banking industry representatives said in a letter to CFPB Director Richard Cordray late last week. “These rules will dramatically refocus the entire lending process,” wrote the American Bankers Association and their state association affiliates. “Every participant in that process, from lenders to borrowers, service providers, appraisers, escrow agents, title...

Rep. Jeb Hensarling this week provided a detailed blueprint for his vision of the MBS market that would replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with a voluntary securitization platform that would be prohibited from providing any guaranties, government-backed or otherwise. The Texas Republican’s proposed National Mortgage Market Utility would be built from the work already underway at the government-sponsored enterprises to design a common securitization platform. Like the existing CSP project, which was assigned to the GSEs by their regulator, the NMMU would develop standards for servicing, pooling and securitizing home mortgages, as well as a “publicly accessible securitization outlet.” Hensarling’s proposed utility, part of his Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners Act, goes...

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae produced a combined total of $910.04 billion of single-family MBS during the first half of 2013, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking. That was up 19.8 percent over the volume generated in the first six months of last year. Agency MBS issuance declined during the second quarter, however, drifting down 2.2 percent from the prior quarter. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both saw production slow during the second quarter, by 6.7 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively, but Ginnie Mae posted a solid 8.0 percent increase from the first three months of the year. Wells Fargo remained...[Includes one data chart]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both saw production slow during the second quarter, by 7 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

Wells Fargo and JPM posted strong mortgage results for the second quarter. But what lies ahead for the industry?

It looks like Fannie Mae is taking advantage of an opening in the marketplace to unload some of its legacy non-agency residential MBS. Fannie is moving to divest itself of $1.1 billion in a transaction that was listed this week and expected to trade by week’s end, according to multiple market sources. After the Federal Housing Finance Agency told the government-sponsored enterprises in March to begin selling off at least 5 percent of their illiquid assets, the first round of liquidations took place in mid-May, as Freddie got rid of about $1.0 billion in seasoned non-agency RMBS, with Fannie subsequently selling approximately $2 billion of its multi-family commercial MBS. Round two began...

The Securities Industry and Financial Market Association cautioned drafters of a proposed model law on mortgage foreclosures against adopting a provision that would eliminate or repeal the holder-in-due-course rule in the case of home loan foreclosures. Commenting on the Uniform Law Commission’s discussion draft on the “Residential Real Estate Mortgage Foreclosure Process and Protections,” SIFMA urged the commission not to repeal or limit the holder rule. The trade group warned that the rescission of the rule in the context of home loan foreclosures could convert a secured loan into an unsecured loan. “This is...

Over the past two years, Ginnie Mae has made a concerted effort to improve the speed at which it approves lenders to issue MBS, but certain factions of the industry continue to complain that the process is terribly slow. “Let’s face it. It takes a long time to get approved by Ginnie Mae,” said one advisor who works with the agency. Just how long? The answer depends on the shop and how good an applicant/lender is at filling out paperwork and answering follow-up questions from the agency. In general, it can take...

The issue of whether mortgage loan officers should be eligible for overtime pay has long been a bone of contention between companies and LOs.