Despite the ugliness of the first quarter, there are signs that loan production may finally be firming up.

The CFPB will work with participants to test many eClosing features, including those that may enable consumer understanding, incentivize early document review and facilitate error detection.

So, what does this mean for the industry? Answer: That the Mortgage Mutual Insurance Fund likely will return to health even faster and that maybe there’s room for FHA to cut premiums.

Attorney Richard Andreano noted that the rule’s bonus provisions remain confusing for many lenders.

Even in the depths of the financial crisis, the mortgage industry was producing more new loans than it did during the first quarter of 2014, according to new Inside Mortgage Finance estimates. Mortgage lenders generated just $235 billion of new home loans during the first three months of this year. That was down 23.0 percent from the fourth quarter’s estimated $305 billion in originations and it was off 58.0 percent from the first quarter of 2013. It was...[Includes one data chart]

Nonbank mortgage lenders accounted for a hefty 43.2 percent of single-family mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the first quarter of 2014, according to a new analysis of loan-level data by Inside Mortgage Finance. Nonbanks delivered $55.8 billion of home loans to the government-sponsored enterprises during the first three months of 2014. That was down 17.7 percent from the previous quarter, but overall GSE business was down even more, by 29.1 percent. Both subsets of the nonbank segment – larger companies that ranked among the top 25 lenders overall and smaller mortgage companies – claimed...[Includes one data chart]

The bureau is expected to announce a pilot project to improve the mortgage closing process from A to Z for all stakeholders – not just consumers – an initiative likely to rely heavily on the industry’s technological capabilities.

In January, newly sworn-in FHFA Director Mel Watt officially delayed a GSE guaranty fee increase that had been scheduled by his predecessor Edward DeMarco.

As for details, a spokesman for the company said Ellie isn’t talking about the topic at this time. In an email exchange with IMFnews, mortgage technology consultant Tony Garritano of Progress in Lending called the whole episode “very bizarre”…

Some stakeholders said they called the firm’s investor relations department about the latest probe and were told the firm would be saying more about the matter when it reports first quarter earnings.