A mortgage lender’s documentation of compliance with the CFPB’s ability-to-repay qualified mortgage rule is just about as essential as compliance itself, a top industry attorney advised participants in a webinar sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance Publications last week. And Joseph Reilly, a partner with the BuckleySandler law firm, reached into Zen lore to make his point. “If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?” he asked. Similarly, “Starting in 2014: If a lender complies with ATR/QM but...

Whether a given mortgage meets the criteria of a qualified mortgage under the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule, in and of itself, will not be considered a safety- and-soundness issue, according to joint supervisory guidance issued late last week by federal financial regulators. Nor will QM status – or the lack thereof – be a make-or-break issue in terms of Community Reinvestment Act compliance, the feds added, echoing similar guidance issued back in October. “From a safety-and-soundness perspective, the agencies...

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors called upon Congress to confer small creditor “qualified mortgage” status upon all mortgages held in portfolio by community banks, as part of a larger call to “right-size” federal regulations that disproportionately focus on the risks to huge institutions, at the expense of smaller institutions.One of the primary examples of regulatory relief for smaller institutions has come from the CFPB’s Small Creditor QM rule, the organization said in a white paper released last week. The small...

Loan broker Anne James, who runs Reliance Funding in Wittier, CA, told us recently that “I have wholesale lenders calling me daily to sign up.” She notes, however that “Loans are not dropping out of the sky” but adds that she’s getting quite a few calls for second mortgages.

“In our view, the primary risk associated with some lenders being less than fully prepared for QM could be temporary loan production delays,” the consulting firm adds.

Advisors note that Walter should be concerned that it has a large MSR portfolio – $194 billion at Sept. 30, according to figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance – but a relatively small origination platform.

Wells, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase accounted for a combined 44.7 percent of the $517.75 billion in bank HELOCs outstanding at the end of the third quarter.

RHS Extends Submission Deadline for Online Homeownership Courses. The Rural Housing Service has extended the deadline for submitting online homeownership education courses for use in the agency’s Single Family House Section 502 Direct Loan Program. The new deadline is Dec. 31, 2013. The RHS will review all submitted education packages, each of which should include a course background, a copy of a certificate of completion, a price sheet, and the user’s contact information. HUD Extends Recertification Filing Deadline for All Lenders. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has extended the ...

Despite two consecutive quarterly production declines, the Department of Veterans Affairs Home Loan Guaranty program is well on its way to a record year due to strong refinance volumes and demand for home-purchase mortgages. Federally guaranteed lending to military service members fell in the third quarter of 2013 by 10.6 percent from the second quarter while volume over the nine-month period increased by 14.9 percent compared to the same period last year, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of VA lending. Over a nine-month period, VA lenders originated an ...

More lenders will be able to make mortgage loans to rural homebuyers due to sweeping changes made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to its single-family home loan guaranty program. Published in the Dec. 9 Federal Register, the changes are part of a broad program overhaul to strengthen rural housing markets, increase the availability of rural home loans and spur the construction of new homes in rural areas. The changes in the interim final rule will take effect on Sept. 1, 2014, and are likely to draw more prospective homebuyers to the program, the agency said. Commenters have until Jan. 8 to ...