An unspecified number of counties would have been assigned lower loan limits, based on house price trends, but the FHFA weighed “other factors” and left them unchanged.

CFPB eClosing Program Will be a Plus, Eventually. The eClosing initiative launched earlier this year by the CFPB will ultimately be beneficial to the mortgage industry, once all the big wrinkles are ironed out, according to analysts at DBRS, formerly Dominion Bond Rating Service. “Many of the elements that make up eClosings are already being used in other consumer and commercial loans (such as auto loans and equipment lending), so much of the process should be easy to replicate,” the analysts said in a client note last week. “However, it is the uniqueness of the mortgage industry that will present some challenges.” For instance, there are real estate statutes for real property, compared with the Uniform Commercial Code for personal ...

However, the technology initiative will not be a slam dunk. Real estate laws vary from state to state, which can present a high hurdle for large national lenders to clear.

Two years ago, Ross’ WL Ross & Co. sold its mortgage banking operation, Homeward Residential, to Ocwen for $750 million in cash and convertible preferred stock.

The increase in g-fees last year made all three loan-purpose categories more profitable.

There’s a growing fear that the CSBS might move to increase capital standards for nonbank originators as well.

Bond investing giant PIMCO has made an investment in Citadel Servicing, a small but fast-growing nonprime lender that could wind up originating $400 million in non-agency residential loans next year. Industry officials confirmed the investment to Inside Nonconforming Markets, although neither company would comment. One source close to the transaction said PIMCO’s stake in Citadel is under 30 percent. The lender, which raised $200 million in seed money early last year, has been funding ...

“It’s been seven years since the financial crisis, and certainly a lot of things have changed,” said Rui Pereira, managing director at Fitch Ratings.

FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund ended fiscal 2014 in the black but was still far short of its statutory reserve requirement, prompting critics in Congress to renew their cries for FHA reform. An independent actuarial report sent to Congress this week showed that the MMI Fund now stands at $4.8 billion after a gain of nearly $6 billion over the last year. For the first time since 2009, the fund’s capital ratio also crossed into positive territory at 0.41 percent, up 52 basis points from the negative 0.11 percent posted in fiscal 2013. Overall, the economic value of the fund has risen by $21 billion over the last two years because of the aggressive steps the agency took to stabilize and strengthen the fund, the report said. Policy changes led to improved underwriting for single-family mortgages, increased mortgage insurance premiums, stronger loss mitigation policies and higher recoveries, it added. In addition, with ...

The economic value of the FHA’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage legacy portfolio fell to negative $0.9 billion in fiscal 2014 due mainly to volatility in long-term house prices and interest rates, according to the latest independent actuarial report on the health of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. The latest result was a significant improvement from FY 2012, when the fund stood at negative $2.8 billion. In fiscal 2013, the HECM portfolio’s economic value of positive $6.5 billion appeared to be a whopping change from the previous year but that amount reflected a $4.6 billion cash infusion from the forward program and from the $1.7 billion mandatory appropriation, the report clarified. The report also showed a corresponding decline in the HECM capital ratio to negative 1.20 percent. Actuarial projections for fiscal 2015 place the HECM portfolio’s economic value at negative $1.1 billion. The fund’s capital resources for ...