The battle over the Dodd-Frank-mandated risk-retention rules continues on Capitol Hill, with lawmakers rehashing concerns about either the detrimental or beneficial effects the proposed rule may have on the market. The Dodd-Frank Act required federal regulators to come up with a definition of “qualified residential mortgages” that would be exempt from a 5 percent risk-retention requirement when securitized. During a hearing this week in the House Oversight Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs, Republican lawmakers argued that transparency is a better solution to restoring investor confidence and reviving the non-agency MBS market. But according to Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-MD, lenders shouldn’t be let off the hook, and the risk-retention rules do furnish necessary...

The Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development last week announced they had filed a civil mortgage fraud lawsuit against Deutsche Bank and its wholly owned subsidiary, MortgageIT, over some of its FHA lending practices...

“The [jumbo] market is much bigger than the banks’ balance sheets,” according to Randy Robertson, a managing director and co-head of securitized products at BlackRock. The firm’s jumbo mortgage real-estate investment trust has been operating for four months and aims to help re-establish the...

Mandatory risk-retention requirements will severely limit non-agency mortgage originations and securitization, according to market participants. Even portfolio originations could be hindered due to the pending rule from federal regulators. “Loan availability is likely to be quite restricted in the...

Good news for mortgage brokers: the FHA has eliminated the statutory 1 percent origination cap on 203(k) rehabilitation mortgages. This means that loan originators may set and collect “fair, reasonable and customary fees and charges” above 1 percent for originating “fixer upper” mortgage ...

Mortgage origination activity dropped sharply in early 2011 and momentum is pointing toward further declines as the housing market limps into a new buying season. Mortgage lenders generated an estimated $325.0 billion in single-family originations during the first three months of the year, a decline of... [Includes two data charts]

The American Guild of Appraisers met with Rep. Barney Frank, D-MA, on April 14 to ask for his help in resolving the guild’s concerns with the Federal Reserve Board’s interim final rule on appraiser independence and reasonable and customary fees, which was implemented on the first of the month...

The Federal Reserve Board’s loan originator compensation rule is finally in effect after lawsuits filed by mortgage broker trade groups failed to stop the rule in its tracks. In a terse, one-page decision, the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit lifted a temporary stay order against...

Originations of FHA-insured mortgages declined in early 2011, and February’s total was the lowest in nearly three years. Overall mortgage market lending dropped in the fourth quarter last year, and the industry is in the throes of reforming the system while trying to urge back the private sector. The $15.0 billion in... [Includes one data chart and one graph]

All FHA-insured mortgages made after April 18 will face higher annual premiums, the latest fee structure change in a series of adjustments over the past year. Early indications from Department of Housing and Urban Development data show that the measures have begun to accomplish both of the agency’s goals – to shore up...