California lawmakers are considering creating a state-level watchdog agency akin to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to enhance enforcement of consumer laws and fill the void left by the federal agency.

Joseph Otting, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, set the rumor mills in motion last week when he told an audience at George Mason University Law School that the agency would finish work this summer on final capital rules for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Castle & Cooke Mortgage, a $1 billion-plus-a- year lender, is set to break ties with Eli Global, an insurance conglomerate whose chairman, Greg Lindberg, was indicted in North Carolina this week.

Industry stakeholders warned that doing away with key enforcement tools under the Fair Housing Act will make it harder to protect consumers from discriminatory housing policies and racial segregation.

Mortgage originators licensed by state regulators produced fewer loans in 2018 than they had in the previous year but still took more market share away from depositories. A new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of call-report data from banks, credit unions and the National Multistate Licensing System found that state-licensed nonbanks accounted for 54.8% of mortgage originations last year. That was up 1.8 percentage points from 2017. [Includes two data charts.]

Home mortgages that fail one of the basic tests to be classified as a qualified mortgage have become an increasingly large part of the agency market over the past few years, a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis reveals. [Includes one data chart.]

Several nonbanks are increasing their originations of non-qualified mortgages, a bright spot in an otherwise declining volume environment.

Home-equity lending weakened in late 2018 but remained a relatively bright spot in the mortgage business, according to an exclusive Inside Mortgage Finance market analysis. [Includes three data charts.]

Among the four main mortgage products, only originations of expanded-credit loans increased in 2018. Originations of expanded-credit mortgages rose 20.2% to $45.2 billion last year, according to estimates by Inside Mortgage Finance. Total first-lien production declined by 9.9% during the year.

Higher conforming loan limits for agency mortgage-backed securities programs didn’t do much to offset a sharp decline in total jumbo lending last year, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. [Includes three data charts.]