Conventional conforming mortgage production took the heaviest hit in new lending during the first quarter as all four corners of the single-family originations market recorded sharp declines, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. Originations of conventional mortgages that meet conforming loan limits sank 40.0 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010, hitting an estimated $213.0 billion. The conventional conforming market still had the biggest role in the market, accounting for 65.5 percent of new originations, but a sharp drop in refinance activity hit the sector hard. Government-insured lending was also... [Includes two data charts]

Industry representatives are making headway in obtaining clarification from the Federal Reserve on various aspects of the agency’s controversial regulation on loan originator compensation. But there are a number of key questions that still have to be addressed, and until they are, lenders need to proceed carefully, according to a top official at one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders. One area in which the industry needs clarification has to do with compensation based on “time spent” as it pertains to different loan programs and products, and whether compensation can be established on a loan-by-loan basis or by...

Florida. The state legislature recently passed SB 1613, which allows licensed loan originators to work as contract loan processors or in-house loan processors, but includes in-house loan processors in certain disciplinary provisions...

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will host workshops for directors of nationally chartered community banks and federal savings associations in New York at the Hilton New York, June 28-29, 2011...

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., as the receiver of Washington Mutual, earlier this month sued Lender Processing Services of Jacksonville, FL, and CoreLogic of Santa Ana, CA, and their corporate parents and affiliates for a combined $283.5 million, alleging gross negligence and breach of contract related to appraisals performed for hundreds of the defunct lender's mortgages between 2006 and 2008...

FHA endorsements fell 22.1 percent from the fourth quarter as the refinancing wave of 2010 ended, as did production in other channels in the first quarter of 2011. The FHA endorsed $57.6 billion in 1-4 family mortgage loans in the first quarter, including reverse mortgages, down from $74.0 billion the previous quarter. It lost some market share to VA, whose total originations were up 26.2 percent from the first quarter of last year. The agency reported a 33.8 percent increase in applications in March ... [includes one data chart and one graph]

The mortgage broker industry saw a huge decline in new origination volume during the first quarter of 2011 as lenders appeared to focus on shoring up their retail channels in the face of a major slowdown in new lending volume. A new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance reveals that the mortgage broker share of the market fell to a record low 7.1 percent during the first three months of 2011. Broker originations plummeted 59.6 percent from the fourth quarter to a record low of just $23 billion. In fact, the top three lenders in the market each generated more retail production than the entire broker channel did during... [Includes four data charts]

Correspondent lending has taken a chunk of market share away from the broker channel, and smaller banks are jumping at the opportunity to become correspondent lenders to fill the spaces that too-big-to-fail lenders have overlooked or ignored. NexBank is among those trying to fill the gap. The North Texas state savings bank has announced a new wholesale correspondent channel aimed at offering mortgage brokers a chance to serve as mortgage bankers to their customers. NexBank is also looking to partner with community banks that have the balance sheet or warehouse line to fund loans but do not have the ability or desire to underwrite the loans. As a partner...

Faced with a declining originations outlook, mortgage lenders should take advantage of today's more plentiful warehouse lending environment to review strategies that were developed during the liquidity crisis, industry experts say. The warehouse capacity issue has swung 180 degrees from where it was a few years ago, said Elaine Batlis, a senior vice president at Silvergate Bank, during last week's national secondary market conference sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association. Back in 2006-07, there was an oasis of liquidity; pricing was good and terms were flexible, Batlis said. But in the wake of the financial crisis in 2008, there was a sudden...

New primary mortgage insurance activity declined in step with slowing mortgage origination activity in the first quarter of 2011, and private MIs took more than their share of the hit, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. A total of $93.54 billion of mortgages originated in the first three months of the year carried primary MI coverage, down 20.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010. That was, however, less severe than the 35.0 percent drop in new loan originations over the same period. As refinance transactions represented a smaller share of... [Includes two data charts]