Urban Institute's Karan Kaul noted that some banks have opted to keep mortgages that are eligible for sale to the GSEs.

Loan Modification Trial Payment Plans for Forward Mortgages. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced requirements for trial plan duration, required signatures, and reporting for trial payment-plan agreements, and the conditions under which FHA deems a TPP to have failed.Lenders must implement the requirements in Mortgagee Letter 2015-07 for all TPPs offered to borrowers on or after June 1, 2015. FHA Publishes Additional Sections of HUD Single-Family Policy Handbook. The FHA has published additional sections for the SF Handbook, including the following: Doing Business with FHA – Lenders and Mortgagees Doing Business with FHA – Other participants in FHA Transactions – Appraisers; Quality Control, Oversight and Compliance – Lenders and Mortgagees; Quality Control Oversight, and Compliance – Other Participants in FHA Transactions – Appraisers ...

For the past year, Nationstar Mortgage has been working toward offering a non-QM refinance product.

Interactive Mortgage Advisors is working on several servicing transactions totaling about $20 billion in product. But the receivables are being offered through private negotiation only...

The non-agency mortgage business looks attractive to many companies, but it is a difficult market to get into, according to experts speaking at a mortgage servicing conference sponsored by Information Management Network this week in New York. Non-agency originations outside of portfolio jumbos have been limited due to certain allowances for the government-sponsored enterprises and the lack of demand for mortgage-backed securities, among other issues ...

Originations of adjustable-rate mortgages were nearly level in 2014 compared with the previous year, according to a new ranking by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The ARM share of total originations increased because mortgage production overall was down in that time, though some big banks that dominate ARM originations also slowed their production. An estimated $198.0 billion in ARMs were originated in 2014, up 1.0 percent ... [Includes one data chart]

Thirty-year fixed-rate mortgages have served borrowers relatively well, but there are issues that could be addressed by an alternative product, according to new research from staff at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. “Ideally, an alternate mortgage instrument would alleviate the downpayment constraint associated with the transition to homeownership, eliminate any scope for discrimination in mortgage qualification or pricing and allow ...

Production of mortgages with a VA guaranty grew a hefty 17.9 percent in the fourth quarter, providing an emphatic ending to a record year of VA purchase-loan originations, according to Inside FHA/VA Lending’s analysis of agency data. Total VA volume for the entire year was $112.0 billion in purchase and refinance loans. VA streamlined refinancings accounted for 22.4 percent of overall VA originations for 2014. Production for the full year, however, was down 13.8 percent compared to the same period in 2013. Lenders attributed the increased VA market share to the younger generation of soldiers and sailors engaged in foreign wars as well as veterans returning from the war front. Last year, 18 percent of VA loans were made to active-duty service members and 82 percent were loans to veterans, said Mike Frueh, director of the VA Home Loan guaranty program. “There is a lot more ... [1 chart]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture-Rural Housing Service has proposed to revise regulations for the single-family housing guaranteed loan program pertaining to qualified-mortgage (QM) requirements, refinancing, principal reduction and lender indemnification. The deadline for comments is May 4, 2015.The RHS is proposing to amend its regulations to indicate that a loan with an RHS guarantee is a qualified mortgage if it meets certain requirements set by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB published a QM rule, which became effective on Jan. 10, 2014. Among other things, the rule requires creditors to make a reasonable, good faith determination of a borrower’s ability to repay the mortgage loan. In addition, the rule establishes a safe harbor from liability for transactions that meet the QM requirements or, in certain cases, a rebuttable presumption of ...

Consumer advocates and attorneys are urging the Department of Housing and Urban Development to delay the implementation of a new policy that purports to provide relief to surviving spouses of reverse-mortgage borrowers and to find solutions that are more effective. The group said the policy HUD announced in Mortgagee Letter 2015-03 on Jan. 29 is so restrictive that virtually all surviving non-borrowing spouses will get no relief. A letter to the agency, drafted by the National Consumer Law Center and signed by the Consumers Union, California Reinvestment Coalition, National Housing Law Project, Housing and Economic Rights Advocates and Institute on Aging denounced the new policy. They said most surviving spouses of deceased borrowers of Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans will not be able to meet the policy’s stringent guidelines and will ...