With just $1 trillion in originations expected this year, lenders and servicers are trimming their payrolls accordingly.

Will loan production in the second half surprise the naysayers? Will non-QM lending take off? Stay tuned...

The most encouraging sign is that agency volume has been gaining pace. Production increased by 11.4 percent from May to June, with $76.48 billion in gross issuance.

Investors that have bought stock – and debt instruments – in the MIs are anxious about the phase-in period for the capital standards.

As for the two banks working on jumbo securities, both have not issued any bonds in recent years but “are getting their securitization machines ready,” said one jumbo executive.

As of May, only three of the loans were 30-days delinquent, with the other once-delinquent mortgages having returned to current status or paid off.

The National Association of Mortgage Brokers is doing another survey of its membership to determine the amount of closing cost credits given back to consumers at closing during 2013 – part of a broader effort on the part of the trade group to persuade the CFPB to loosen aspects of its ability-to-repay rule. Last year, NAMB submitted a letter to the CFPB to detail the mandatory credits a broker is required to provide consumers when rate sheet pricing exceeds the broker’s contractually obligated Lender Paid Compensation agreement. NAMB contends that the mortgage broker community provides mortgage credits back to the consumer that range in the billions annually, thus stimulating the nation’s economy. In order to demonstrate this, NAMB polled a number ...

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors told the CFPB it is concerned that certain bad actors within the mortgage lending industry could take advantage of the bureau’s proposed “right to cure” an otherwise qualified mortgage loan that inadvertently falls outside the ability-to-repay rule’s 3 percent cap on points and fees. The CSBS concern revolves largely around bona fide discount points. “State banking regulators support measures that would increase access to credit for consumers who are at the margins of the points-and-fees limits,” the CSBS said in public comment letter to the bureau. “However, there is concern that the proposed ‘cure’ mechanism for inadvertent points and fee miscalculations could disguise or promote the misuse of discount points by unscrupulous lenders seeking ...

A diverse group of mortgage lending industry representatives including Realtors, credit unions and behemoth Bank of America is more or less supportive of a possible “right to cure” a qualified mortgage loan that would inadvertently slip beyond the QM 43 percent debt-to-income ratio threshold. “We support a DTI cure that would allow creditors to take corrective action where there is an inadvertent error in calculating a consumer’s debt or income or where a creditor has stopped documenting income in the mistaken belief that sufficient validated documentation supporting the 43 percent test has been obtained,” BofA said in a public comment letter to the CFPB. According to the lender, both of these instances could easily be fixed, either by correcting a ...

Credit union industry representatives want the CFPB to expand some exemptions in some of its recent rulemakings so their CU members could reach larger portions of their targeted markets. One of the recent amendments the bureau proposed to its mortgage rules issued in 2013 would provide an alternative definition of “small provider” applicable to Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit entities that service loans for a fee and on behalf of other nonprofit entities within the same overall organization.This is the so-called “small servicer exemption.” Also for 501(c)(3) nonprofit entities, the proposed rule would exempt certain interest-free, contingent subordinate liens from the credit extension limit under the ability-to-repay rule. This is what’s known as the “small creditor exemption.” As ...