Mortgage banking income rose substantially in the second quarter of 2015 mostly because lenders sold more loans in the secondary market, but the outlook for the second half of the year is murkier. Commercial banks and thrifts sold $198.64 billion of home loans during the second quarter, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call-report data. That was up 19.9 percent from the first three months of the year, and it represented the busiest ... [Includes one data chart]

Credit standards appear to be easing more than they have in the past few years in both the government-sponsored enterprise market and non-GSE lending, according to Fannie Mae’s most recent lender survey. Medium and large-sized lenders both reported a notable easing of credit standards for the first time in seven quarters. The gap between lenders reporting easing as opposed to tightening over the second quarter increased to 20 percentage points for ...

The housing market showed the signs of a typical seasonal slowdown in August, according to results from the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. While purchase-mortgage lending could soften in the coming months, the home purchase market looks stronger than it was a year ago. Tom Popik, research director of Campbell Surveys, said comments from a number of real estate agents across the country suggest that the housing market ...

Correspondent lenders generated 32.1 percent of the home loans securitized by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae during the second quarter of 2015. More than either other channel, correspondents excelled at finding homebuyer borrowers, 51.9 percent of their second-quarter production, while refinance loans accounted for 56.5 percent of total agency business. Heavy purchase-mortgage volume meant correspondent loans had lower ... [Includes one data chart]

Mortgage origination volume was down sharply in 2014, but not by as much as previously thought, according to an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data released this week by federal regulators. A total of $1.242 trillion of single-family purchase and refinance loans were originated during 2014, the HMDA data reveal. That was down 29.5 percent from the 2013 HMDA total, although purchase-mortgage lending was up slightly in both the government-insured and conventional markets. HMDA first-lien purchase and refi originations came...[Includes one data table]

The FHA will consider stakeholders’ concern about its proposal to terminate a lender’s mortgage insurance contract for missing a yet-to-be-finalized deadline for filing claims, an agency official said. For now, however, the agency remains adamant about letting the provision stand despite stakeholder complaints about its severity, said Ivery Himes, director of the Office of Single Family Asset Management at FHA, during a panel discussion this week at the Ginnie Mae annual conference in Arlington, VA. She said missed deadlines are costly and are putting a strain on the agency’s resources. Himes blamed...

Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody’s, said the biggest impediment to opening up the FHA credit box is the issue of loan certification.

The evidence is somewhat suspect because as the analysts noted, the 43 percent cap on DTI ratios for QMs doesn’t currently apply to the FHA, VA or GSE mortgages.

Bond investing giant PIMCO has quietly purchased First Guaranty Mortgage Corp., Frederick, MD, for roughly $50 million, gaining a toehold into an industry it has been carefully eyeing for well over two years now. The acquisition – confirmed to Inside Mortgage Finance by several sources – comes roughly three months after the company pulled out of talks with RoundPoint Mortgage, the nation’s 24th largest servicer. PIMCO – formally known as Pacific Investment Management Co. – has tried...

Ocwen has so many workers in India that it hedges its risk against the currency there, the Rupee.