Mortgages guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs accounted for 29.4 percent of insured home loans securitized in the agency mortgage-backed securities market in the fourth quarter of 2016, a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis reveals. That was up from a 27.2 percent share for the VA during the third quarter. The home-loan guaranty program has become a refinance dynamo, accounting for a whopping 44.6 percent of insured refi loans ... [Includes one data chart]

The GSE figures suggest that private MIs saw a measurable drop in new insurance written in the final three months of 2016, but ended the year with a significant increase in volume compared to 2015.

According to exclusive survey figures from Inside Mortgage Finance, the wholesale/broker market share increased to 10.2 percent in the third quarter, its highest reading of the year.

RPM Mortgage, Alamo, CA, is in serious negotiations to buy at least two other mortgage banking firms – or their assets – and has its eye on at least one other shop, according to investment banking officials who claim to have knowledge of the situation. If the acquisitions come to fruition, they could put the privately held nonbank on track to be a $14 billion a year originator, said a source who advises the company. One of the target acquisitions is a $4 billion a year lender, the other a $650 million funder. A spokesman for RPM declined to comment. A few weeks back, RPM made...

With the formal transition of presidential power now a mere week away, Congressional Republicans and Democrats alike were busy this week reordering the teams that will take the field for the 115th Congress. Mortgage lenders are hopeful for at least some degree of regulatory relief from the Republican-controlled Congress and White House, but Democrats are vowing to defend the Dodd-Frank Act, one of the signature achievements of the outgoing Obama administration. Republicans in the House of Representatives got...

CPR&T predicted that the asset value of Ocwen’s mortgage servicing portfolio likely won’t benefit much from the recent spike in interest rates…

Bose George, who follows PHH for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, also used the phrase “liquidation” to describe the company’s sale of assets.

Oddly enough, the nonprime space showed some signs of life last year and hopes are high for 2017 as well…

Borrowers completing reverse-occupancy fraud aim to qualify for a mortgage with help from the theoretical rental income from the so-called investment property…

Cordray, of course, could just nip this in the bud right now, resign and start his run for governor of Ohio…