The U.S. mortgage market produced an estimated $580.0 billion of first-lien originations during the third quarter of 2016, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. That was up 13.7 percent from the second quarter, and it marked the strongest origination cycle since the fourth quarter of 2012, when $584.0 billion of new loans flowed through the pipes. The robust third quarter brought year-to-date originations to $1.470 trillion, up 8.9 percent from the first nine months of 2015. Lender feedback and agency mortgage-backed securities data suggest...[Includes two data tables]

An agreement by a Chinese international financial holding group to acquire Genworth Financial for approximately $2.7 billion, or $5.43 per share, would give China a foothold in the U.S. mortgage insurance market. Announced on Oct. 23 by Genworth, the sale follows the planned sale of market leader United Guaranty to Arch Capital Group, a global provider of mortgage insurance and reinsurance based in Bermuda. The entire Genworth family of companies, including the MI division, is...

Trade groups representing a broad spectrum of mortgage and securitization businesses generally support an effort by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to develop more credit-risk transfer options, but some cautioned that the government-sponsored enterprises should maintain a level playing field. In response to a Federal Housing Finance Agency request for comments on the CRT program, the Mortgage Bankers Association and U.S. Mortgage Insurers repeated their calls for programs to allow loan sellers to buy deeper private MI in exchange for reduced GSE guaranty fees. To date, the vast majority of Fannie and Freddie CRT deals have been...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development called on its inspector general to reassess estimated financial losses to the FHA insurance fund, which an IG audit attributed to lengthy delays of servicer foreclosures and property conveyances. A recent audit report by the HUD inspector general alleges that HUD paid approximately $2.23 billion in claims for an estimated 239,000 properties that missed foreclosure and conveyance deadlines. According to the IG report, HUD paid an estimated $141.9 million for servicers’ claims for “unreasonable and unnecessary” debenture interest on the distressed loans, as well as $2.09 billion in servicer claims for holding the properties past their foreclosure and conveyance deadlines. While it was necessary for servicers to pay for property-preservation costs, HUD should not have paid for holding costs, the ...

Norwich Commercial Group has launched a new division, Military Direct Mortgage, to focus exclusively on VA direct-to-consumer lending. Based in Avon, CT, just down the road from its parent company, Military Direct opened for business in August this year and the timing could not have been better. In September, issuance of securities backed by VA loans totaled $22.3 billion, up from $18.1 billion in August, according to Ginnie Mae data. VA loan originations saw a 17.4 percent increase in the third quarter from the previous quarter, and were up 22.3 percent over the nine-month period compared to last year. VA purchase-mortgage volume for September totaled $9.9 billion, up after a slight drop in August. Purchase-mortgage activity also improved by 26.1 percent in the third quarter, and by 16.5 percent year-over-year. VA refinance volume featured a huge 34.0 percent increase in ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development inspector general, over the last several weeks, has reported a series of final civil actions that resulted in an enforcement action or monetary settlement between an FHA lender and the federal government. On Oct. 6, the IG announced the results of an audit of TXL Mortgage Corp., a direct endorsement lender, in Houston. The audit found TXL in violation of HUD requirements and that it had no acceptable quality-control plan in place. Specifically, 16 of the 20 sample loans the IG reviewed did not comply with HUD standards. Of the 16 loans, eight had significant underwriting defects and failed to qualify for FHA mortgage insurance. Two loans qualified but were over-insured, according to the report. As a result, TXL exposed HUD to more than $713,000 in unnecessary insurance risk and caused the department to incur more than ...

A glitch in the federal government’s Servicemembers Civil Relief Act website that had been churning out false verifications of soldiers’ active-duty status has been fixed, the Defense Manpower Data Center of the Department of Defense has announced.The bug responsible for the false negative results was removed after rendering the website inoperable for several days. The DMDC is urging active servicemembers to re-run their SCRA certificate requests if they have reason to doubt any negative results returned by the website. The DMDC shut down the website temporarily on Oct. 4 making it impossible for mortgage lenders to verify their or their vendor-partners’ compliance with the SCRA. The statute provides certain protections from civil actions against servicemembers who are called to active duty. It restricts or limits actions against active-duty military personnel in areas such as mortgages, rental and lease agreements, credit-card interest rates, tax liability, lawsuits and other debt obligations. The SCRA certificate provides information only for the purpose of verifying an individual’s active-duty status for a given time period to ...

One of the key documents VA lenders require veteran borrowers to submit is the certificate of eligibility (COE). A VA loan application will not move forward without a COE, a requirement for any active-duty servicemember or veteran seeking to take advantage of the VA’s home-loan guaranty program. The COE verifies to the lender a loan applicant’s eligibility for a VA loan. The evidence a lender might require depends on the nature of the applicant’s eligibility. Veterans and current or former National Guardsmen or reservists who have been called to active duty must submit DD Form 214. The form would show the character of service and the reason for separation from the service. Active-duty servicemembers must submit a current statement of service signed by a superior, the unit commander or the adjutant, higher headquarters or the personnel office. The statement must contain the ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general urged the agency to revise regulations to avoid the possibility of another multi-billion dollar hit to the FHA insurance fund due to servicers missing their foreclosure or conveyance deadlines. According to a recent IG audit report, HUD paid approximately $2.23 billion in claims for an estimated 239,000 properties that missed foreclosure and conveyance deadlines. In particular, HUD paid an estimated $141.9 million for servicers’ claims for “unreasonable and unnecessary” debenture interest as well as $2.09 billion in servicer claims for holding costs incurred after the deadlines for foreclosure or conveyance had lapsed, the report said. Because of these exorbitant claims payments, the FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund became...

Executive departures continue to plague due diligence provider Clayton Holdings and now there’s talk that its parent company, Radian Group, is contemplating taking a goodwill charge on a subsidiary it paid $305 million for two years ago. The latest top-level officials to leave the unit include Capital Markets Senior Managing Director Brian Wornow and Mark Hughes, executive vice president in charge of sales and marketing. Sources close to Wornow contend...