CFPB Director Richard Cordray tried to reassure the mortgage lending community that the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule with its qualified mortgage standard will provide all the legal protections they are expecting. One issue “that some consultants and lawyers have raised is whether the law and our rule will deliver the assured and predictable legal protections even for QM loans,” Cordray said in an address recently before the annual convention of the Mortgage Bankers Association in Washington, DC. “We believe strongly that they will...

The CFPB recently updated its Small Entity Compliance Guide to the ability‐to‐repay/qualified mortgage rule, which takes effect in January. The updated guide reflects clarifications and changes – formally known as the June 2013 ATR/QM concurrent final rule, the July 2013 final rule, and the October 2013 final rule – made to the rule since it was issued in January 2013. Among the most notable changes in the October 2013 final rule reflected in the updated guide is the exclusion of compensation that is paid by a retailer of...

Big banks were the five largest jumbo originators last year, with Bank of America ranking second followed by JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and U.S. Bank.

The planned $209.95 million Citigroup Mortgage Loan Trust 2013-J1 is backed by mortgages seasoned an average of four months from six lenders.

Michael Heid, president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, said more clarity on reps and warranties would help loosen residential credit.

Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, said the structure of the government guaranty for MBS “must be explicit, appropriately priced, and stand behind private capital that is not guaranteed.”

The Federal Housing Finance Agency will announce 2014 loan limits for the government-sponsored enterprises near the end of November and provide lenders at least six months before the expected reductions take effect. “FHFA will follow its practice of announcing the 2014 conforming loan limits in late November, at which time further information will be provided on potential reductions in the size of loans the GSEs will guaranty going forward,” said Edward DeMarco, acting director of the FHFA ...

Wells Fargo originated nearly one out of every five jumbo mortgages completed in 2012, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Nonconforming Markets of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. Wells had a 17.8 percent share of the $220.51 billion in non-agency jumbo mortgages originated last year, more than double its nearest rival. The origination volumes are based on one-unit conventional loan limits for specific metropolitan statistical areas and the $417,000 conforming loan limit [Includes one data chart] ...

A number of small subprime lenders report that they see strong demand from borrowers as well as investors looking for the strong, if risky, returns offered by subprime lending. At least two life insurance companies have approached Citadel Servicing about buying some of its new subprime loan production, according to company CEO Dan Perl. In an interview with Inside Nonconforming Markets, Perl declined to identify the insurance companies, but said he believes a market will soon develop for subprime mortgages ...

As credit standards continue to tighten in the face of soon-to-be-implemented regulations, potential nonprime borrowers will increasingly find themselves marginalized in the mortgage market, according to Lewis Ranieri, the former Salomon Brothers vice chairman who helped pioneer mortgage-backed securities four decades ago. In a new white paper Ranieri co-authored, he makes the case that mortgages with credit scores below 680 are currently considered subprime, while the subprime cutoff before the ...