The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau appears to have declared war on several decades’ worth of business practices as it encourages lenders and real estate service providers to end their “marketing service agreements” with each other. Moreover, according to industry officials, the CFPB is just getting started on its crackdown as it tries to eliminate both legal and under-the-table business arrangements where a lender – in theory – provides something of value to vendors that it’s conducting business with. The first sign that the mortgage industry is concerned...

A highway funding bill signed by President Obama late last week included a provision aimed at collecting more taxes related to interest payments on mortgages. The mortgage industry noted that it won concessions on the provision, delaying the implementation date and limiting the amount of data to be collected. The brunt of the new revenue also looks as though it will be collected from borrowers. H.R. 3236, the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015, included a seemingly simple provision regarding the reporting of mortgage interest on IRS Form 1098. Servicers use the form to report mortgage interest of $600 or more received during a year. The highway funding bill will require...

The Blackstone Group this week finally completed its purchase of all or parts of PMAC Lending, a California-based lender that will help the investment banking firm establish itself in the red-hot West Coast mortgage market. Although the publicly traded Blackstone has maintained a cone of silence regarding its talks with PMAC, employees of the Chino Hills lender began reporting the news themselves through various social media outlets, including Facebook. At least two other nonbank lenders are in talks with Blackstone, one in California and one in Pennsylvania. A spokeswoman for Blackstone declined...

Two Harbors is starting to offer “expanded credit” mortgages via its conduit, including allowing for lower credit scores and higher loan-to-value ratios.

The Fannie Mae portion of the MSRs is top heavy in California product at 44 percent of the receivables.

One analyst familiar with the case noted that $109.2 million “is a big chunk” for PHH, adding that the case shows “the CFPB is crazy and doesn’t want to be questioned or challenged…”

Freddie CEO Don Layton noted that, “G-fees now account for more than 40 percent of income and is becoming a growing revenue source.”

Blackstone has bought at least one nonbank the past year and is eyeing several other acquisitions but has offered no commentary on its plans...

At the midway point of 2015, the group’s $8.061 billion in year-to-date mortgage-banking income was up 15.1 percent from the first six months of 2014.

Company CEO Dan Perl said the privately held nonbank has been receiving several applications for loan amounts ranging from $2.1 million to $2.7 million...