The mortgage industry is banking heavily on a resurging purchase-mortgage market to help ease the pain of declining refinance volume in 2013 and beyond, and the slow start for the sector this year may be largely due to seasonal factors. Purchase-mortgage originations in the first three months of 2013 were down by 12.5 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. That was a considerably bigger decline than the 2.1 percent drop in refinance lending, which accounted for a hefty 76.2 percent of total mortgage originations in early 2013. But the estimated $119.0 billion in purchase-mortgage originations during the first quarter was...[Includes three data charts]

Loan originators seeking to exclude their compensation from the 3 percent points-and-fees calculation under the Dodd-Frank Act could consider becoming a correspondent lender or a net branch operator to skirt the restriction. But industry experts caution that such a plan has its own pitfalls. The possibility of brokers switching hats surfaced as the mortgage broker industry, once again, struggles against what it deems unfair restrictions on broker compensation. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau appears to have addressed some of these issues with changes to its ability-to-repay rule designed to eliminate double counting in the calculation of loan originator compensation. [See the story on page 5.] The inclusion of loan originator (LO) compensation in the calculation of points and fees under the CFPB rule raises...

Mark Savitt, president of the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals, told Inside Mortgage Finance that including “lender paid” compensation to brokers in the 3 percent cap is “double counting.

John Robbins is out at Bexil American Mortgage. Meanwhile, EverBank readies its second jumbo MBS deal of the year.

Non-agency MBS execution is competitive with agency MBS execution for purchase mortgages with loan-to-value ratios below 70 percent and credit scores above 740.

Banks and thrifts reported $7.7 billion in mortgage banking income during the first three months of 2013, a 16 percent jump from the previous quarter.

The CFPB's ban on mandatory arbitration provisions was part of the bureau’s final rule on loan originator compensation promulgated in January.

According to new FHA rules, no less than 20 percent of a lender’s required net worth must be in the form of liquid assets consisting of cash or an equivalent.

Not only is HUD looking into PHH's underwriting practices, but the government has questions about the lender's foreclosure expenses.

The auction market for nonperforming mortgages is beginning to generate heat with prices rising nicely from last year.