Roughly 88 percent of lenders plan to grow their origination business this year, and many – 67 percent – will either increase the number of retail branches or add loan officers.

Schilling cites a 2009 amendment to the DOJ’s FCA policy that expanded the boundaries of where it can be applied. He said now a claim can include a request for money made to a recipient of government funds.

Baldwin noted that experienced mortgage bankers have grown to expect seasonality, but that doesn’t mean they have to like it…

As banks cede market share to nondepositories, an odd thing is happening: banks and thrifts are hiking their investment in MBS.

Non-traditional forms of credit also will be taken into account on the new product

The sale of jumbo mortgages – and even agency loans – by nonbanks continues to be problematic because of the CFPB’s integrated disclosure rule known as TRID. One mortgage official cited an example of a mortgage with TRID errors that was sold to one of the government-sponsored enterprises. “The lender self-reported the problems and was immediately asked to repurchase the loan,” this official said. Speaking of the GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued $56.56 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities in January, a modest 5.6 percent decline from the previous month, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside The GSEs, an affiliated publication. December, however, may have been an anomaly. Many mortgage originators reported delays in loan closings in October ...

Candidate Clinton Wants to Defend the CFPB. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a neck-and-neck race for the Democratic Party’s nomination for the White House with independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, vowed recently to defend the CFPB. In a package of proposals dubbed “Breaking Every Barrier Agenda: Revitalizing the Economy in Communities Left Behind,” the candidate said she believes “we must never again allow borrowers to be taken advantage of in the rush for corporate profits.” Clinton also pointed out that prior to the financial crisis, she pledged to create a Financial Product Safety Commission, as a counterpart to the CFPB, to crack down on abusive and predatory lenders and to protect consumers. ...

The False Claims Act could potentially apply to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in the future, thanks to increased GSE cases and a broadened claim definition. The risk of the Department of Justice applying the FCA to GSE loans may seem remote, said Andrew Schilling, partner with BuckleySander LLP, but he isn’t counting it out. …

Thanks to the MIP cut, it looks like FHA is stealing business away from Fannie Mae...

Commercial banks and savings institutions continued their buying spree in the MBS market during the fourth quarter of 2015, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside MBS & ABS. Banks and thrifts held a record $1.644 trillion of residential MBS in their available-for-sale and held-to-maturity portfolios as of the end of last year. That was up 2.2 percent from the third quarter and represented a 6.8 percent gain over 12 months. All of the increase came...[Includes two data tables]