Mortgage bankers and brokers are making a fresh push to support H.R. 4323, the Consumer Mortgage Choice Act, legislation that would change the way points and fees are calculated under the Qualified Mortgage definition in the Dodd-Frank Act. Trade groups representing these segments of the industry have made new appeals to their members recently to reach out to their respective lawmakers and garner their support for the legislation. The Consumer Mortgage Choice Act would spell out that affiliate title fees, certain loan originator compensation, and escrow payments are not included...

EverBank completed a $192 million initial public offering of its stock last week, resulting in a deal that was 41 percent smaller than originally planned. The bank has recently expanded its retail and correspondent jumbo lending with an emphasis on cross-selling products to wealthy borrowers. “The availability of jumbo mortgages has significantly contracted,” EverBank said in an IPO-related filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “Because we originate ...

While issuance of non-agency mortgage-backed securities is not particularly attractive for lenders at the moment, banks have been able to turn strong profits by holding nonconforming loans in portfolio. “We’re able to make very good returns” that exceed the profit on selling to the government-sponsored enterprises, said Greg Tallmadge, a vice president at TD Bank. Speaking at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Secondary Market Conference this week ...

FHA lenders are anticipating a spike in volume when changes to the FHA Streamline Refinance Program become effective next month. The biggest change to the program taking place on June 11 is the lower upfront mortgage insurance premium, which the Department of Housing and Urban Development had reduced to just 0.01 percent, and the annual MIP, which was lowered to 0.55 percent. The new premium pricing is effective for all streamline refi transactions that are refinancing FHA loans endorsed on or before May 31, 2009. HUD expects the change will ensure that borrowers benefit from a net reduction in their overall mortgage payment and, at the same time, reduce risk to the FHA. The FHA Streamline Refi program allows borrowers with FHA-insured loans who are current on their mortgage to refinance into a new FHA-insured loan without ...

The FHA and the reverse mortgage industry are working on guidelines that would help lenders in the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program identify unsuitable borrowers. Financial assessment guidelines that are currently in development would limit the pool of HECM applicants to those who can afford to meet the program’s financial obligations in a timely manner, said Jeffrey Lewis, chairman and chief executive officer of Generation Mortgage in Atlanta. HECM loans account for 90 percent of all reverse mortgages originated in the U.S. Loan volume had contracted in the wake of the financial crisis, down ...

Ginnie Mae has announced new data disclosures effective Sept. 1, but investors say it is information they do not need. These include indicators identifying first-time homebuyers, type of third-party originator, and the upfront and annual mortgage insurance premiums. The new disclosures will provide greater transparency on the collateral that backs Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities, the agency explained in its latest guidance to program participants. The move also aligns Ginnie Mae’s data disclosures with the industry, it added. Issuers that are unable initially to provide the data will ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General will begin internal audits later in 2012 on various aspects of the FHA single-family mortgage insurance program and release results of some that were begun last year. In August, OIG auditors will begin review of the FHA TOTAL (Technology Open to All Lenders) Scorecard to determine whether the automated underwriting system approves loans that otherwise would not be approved under manual underwriting. Auditors will also check whether the scorecard could ...

Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans remain widely available, thanks to the independent lenders that rallied to plug the gaps as major players bolted from the reverse mortgage market, an industry executive told lawmakers this week. In testimony during a House subcommittee hearing on FHA regulation of the HECM market, Jeffrey Lewis, CEO of Generation Mortgage Co., said MetLife’s departure from the market and closure of its traditional mortgage-origination business say nothing about the value of the HECM product to consumers. Lewis said MetLife’s decision was a strategic one and had nothing to do with ... (1 chart)

Deutsche Bank and its mortgage subsidiary MortgageIT this week agreed to pay $202 million to settle civil claims that they engaged in a decade of misconduct and deception to qualify risky mortgage loans for FHA insurance. The civil fraud lawsuit was brought against the two companies by the Department of Justice as a result of a referral from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Filed in May last year, the government lawsuit sought damages and civil penalties under the False Claims Act. The suit alleges that MortgageIT, which Deutsche Bank acquired in 2007, used its authority as a direct endorsement lender (DEL) to ...

Genworth Mortgage Insurance has named Martin Klein as acting chief executive officer in the wake of former CEO Michael Frazier’s resignation last week. Klein is and remains the company’s chief financial officer. James Riepe was named nonexecutive chairman of the board. NMI Holdings, Inc., has raised $550 million in a private placement to provide mortgage insurance on loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The company is in the process of obtaining approvals from state insurance regulators and the two government-sponsored enterprises. The MI unit will be called ...