Ocwen’s recent barrage of regulatory settlements, coupled with the sale of the wholesale division and the recent hiring of investment banker Chris Whalen, is sparking talk...
It’s still early in the reporting cycle for third-quarter results, but major banks so far have reported solid origination gains from the previous period, but nothing to set the world on fire. In terms of percentage gains, JPMorgan Chase reported a 12.5 percent increase from the second to the third quarter. U.S. Bancorp was up 11.0 percent, Wells Fargo had a 5.0 percent gain and Citigroup reported a 3.2 percent increase. Bank of America mortgage originations were down slightly. The five ...
Long-running tension between mortgage brokers and retail lenders with wholesale operations ratcheted up recently as a new group urged brokers to stop working with “whole-tail” lenders. Brokers Rallying Against Whole-tail Lending said it coined the term “whole-tail” lender as “a swipe at lenders that offer both wholesale and retail services on paper, when in reality, their primary business objective is to feed stolen prospect information directly to their affiliate companies.” “It is important that ...
Freddie Mac faced criticism last week from consumer advocates for the way the government-sponsored enterprise’s automated underwriting system handles certain functions involving merged credit reports and Equifax. A story in the New York Times this week detailed how Equifax acted as a “gatekeeper” for certain borrower credit information in Freddie’s Loan Quality Advisor. LQA is a risk and eligibility assessment tool that evaluates loan data to help lenders determine if ...
Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson is getting good reviews from mortgage industry participants regarding his congressional testimony late last week on program reforms, particularly his strategy for dealing with FHA exposure under the False Claims Act. Industry observers noted an improvement in Carson’s knowledge and understanding of HUD programs since taking office in March. His nomination by President Trump was controversial because ...
The mortgage interest deduction, or MID, used to rank with apple pie and motherhood for real estate agents, mortgage lenders and homebuilders. But against the backdrop of an intense effort by Republicans to overhaul the tax code, some groups are showing more flexibility on the issue. Complicating matters is that neither the Trump administration nor key players on Capitol Hill have been explicit or consistent in what they want. The Mortgage Bankers Association wrote to the ...
The securities industry is backing Ginnie Mae’s stepped-up efforts to curb loan churning and rapid refinancing of VA loans and expressed its concern over how such improper lending practices might affect borrowers and MBS investors. In a letter this week to Michael Bright, Ginnie’s chief operating officer and acting president, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association lauded the agency’s investigation of aggressive refinancing of VA loans. The practice has ...
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