Mortgage lenders are urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Rural Housing Service to eliminate the current interest-rate cap on single-family USDA loans because it has long outlived its usefulness. RHS is reevaluating the interest-rate cap to determine whether it should be modified to allow borrowers who are ineligible for a conventional mortgage to obtain affordable financing for a home purchase, home rehabilitation or a streamline refinance. Lenders, however, argue that the cap is unrealistic under current market conditions. The agency is currently seeking comment on possible changes. Congress authorized RHS in 1990 to establish a maximum interest rate to help spur loan origination in eligible rural areas. The interest-rate cap is pegged to the current Fannie Mae posted yield for 90-day delivery plus 1 percent for 30-year fixed-rate conventional loans, rounded to the nearest quarter of ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs will begin a new rulemaking on qualified mortgages to conform to Dodd-Frank reform act mandates. Observers say the move is simply housekeeping, since the previous QM interim final rule (IFR) requirements were rendered moot with the enactment of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act back in May. The new law, also known as the Dodd-Frank reform act, superseded the previous rule’s seasoning and recoupment requirements for VA Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loans. Specifically, the act removed the category of rebuttable presumption for IRRRLs deemed as QM under the interim final rule. It also imposed new requirements that were not considered at the time the IFR was issued. The VA did not say whether changes were made ...

Bank of America expects 50 percent of its mortgage clients to go the digital route next year…

Warehouse executives speaking on a panel at this week’s annual Mortgage Bankers Association convention offered a somewhat bleak view of the market.

As part of a multi-year language access plan, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the government-sponsored enterprises this week introduced the first phase of a mortgage translation clearinghouse to better serve Spanish-speaking borrowers.

Ginnie EVP Maren Kasper said the agency is currently working on stress tests for its issuers and could have results by early December…

An affiliate of Annaly Capital Management is preparing to issue a $384 million mortgage-backed security stocked with non-qualified mortgages and loans for investment properties…

The three major credit reporting bureaus – Experian, Equifax and TransUnion – continued to rank first, second and third, respectively, in the number of complaints filed…

As IMFnews went to press, multiple telephone messages and emails to 360 Mortgage had not been returned.

Some 20.9 percent of the loans in the new loanDepot MBS are eligible for sale to the GSEs, down from 40.7 percent in the previous deal from the nonbank…