The Mortgage Bankers Association has asked the CFPB to clarify whether mortgages subject to repurchase demands will lose their “qualified mortgage” status under the bureau’s new ability-to-repay rule. “The rule does not address whether loans that are subject to repurchase demands will lose their QM status based on deficiencies,” the industry trade group said in a comment letter filed with the CFPB recently. “MBA strongly believes they should not, absent fraud. However, clarification is needed.” The Consumer Mortgage Coalition...

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors, the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators and the American Council of State Savings Supervisors submitted a joint comment letter to the bureau expressing strong support for the CFPB’s proposed small-creditor amendment, which was issued along with the ability-to-repay final rule back in January. “CSBS, AARMR and ACSSS have a long-standing policy that regulations should not hinder an insured depository institution’s willingness to engage in portfolio lending, and...

The mortgage lending industry is confronting an unprecedented number of substantive compliance challenges from the half-dozen rules promulgated in January by the CFPB, leading industry representatives are making increasingly clear. For instance, the loan originator compensation rule itself presents a variety of challenges, Amy Thoreson Long, senior counsel in the consumer lending division of Wells Fargo’s law department, told participants in a recent webinar hosted by Inside Mortgage Finance, an affiliated newsletter...

FHA funding accounted for 25 percent of home-purchase financing in January, based on the three-month moving average, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. February numbers will be released shortly.

Nationstar appears to be the winning bidder on the Taylor Bean & Whitaker MSR pacakge. Meanwhile: Ed DeMarco, the most powerful man in mortgage finance today?

Originations of non-agency jumbo mortgages increased by 19.4 percent in 2012 compared with the previous year, according to affiliated publication Inside Mortgage Finance. The sector is expected to continue to grow as jumbos are increasingly attractive for bank portfolios and securitization. An estimated $203.0 billion in non-agency jumbo mortgages were originated in 2012, marking the third straight year of increased production. The sector is driven by big banks ... [Includes one data chart]

Five years after the subprime mortgage industry imploded, there are signs of a revival as new players are entering the nonprime space. What’s developing is “old style” home-equity lending, where loan-to-value ratios are rarely larger than 75 percent and the actual funder of the loan keeps the paper in portfolio and services it. In the past two weeks, two subprime residential firms opened their doors for business: Citadel Loan Servicing and Deephaven Mortgage. Deephaven is the brainchild of ...

Conforming loan limits should be lowered to help draw private capital into the mortgage market, according to recommendations from a bipartisan think tank led by former policymakers. The Bipartisan Policy Center recommended phasing out the government-sponsored enterprises and replacing them with a new “Public Guarantor” that would shift mortgage finance risk to the private sector. “A gradual reduction of the loan limits for government-guaranteed mortgages would help to rebalance the ...

Lending groups are urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to broaden classifications of “qualified mortgages” that it adopted in its final rule implementing ability-to-repay standards mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act. The Mortgage Bankers Association said the interest-rate threshold for determining which loans are eligible for safe harbor provided to QM loans should be raised. The CFPB rule generally allows QM status for loans with annual percentage rates up to 1.5 percentage points higher than ...

AIG announced this week that it launched a new unit to purchase whole loans as long-term investments, with AIG managing the servicing. The new Connective Mortgage Advisory Company recently facilitated AIG’s first correspondent mortgage purchase with AIG’s mortgage insurance subsidiary United Guaranty helping to identify and buy the whole loans. “Direct investment in residential mortgage loans offers attractive investment returns and enables a proactive approach to managing ... [Includes two briefs]