Overall production of government-insured loans fell in all three origination channels in the fourth quarter as refinancing continued to decline in 2017. A survey of FHA, VA and rural housing lenders showed originations in retail, correspondent and broker conduits totaled $248.9 billion, down 11.8 percent from 2016. Correspondent production suffered the biggest quarterly decline, 14.9 percent from the third to the fourth quarter. Production in this channel also declined 4.8 percent for the full year. Approximately $139.3 billion of FHA and VA loans came through this channel last year. Notwithstanding the decline, the correspondent share of government-insured lending grew to 56.0 percent in 2017, up from 51.9 percent in 2016. Brokers saw their share of the government-insured market rise to 10.0 percent, even as quarterly and year-over-year originations declined by 2.0 percent and 10.7 percent ,,, [ Charts ]

Home Equity Conversion Mortgage lenders ended 2017 on a positive note, thanks to a relatively strong fourth quarter, according to an analysis of FHA data. Total reverse mortgage originations rose 3.0 percent from the third quarter to end the year with $18.4 billion in overall HECM production. This was up 23.2 percent year-over-year. Purchase HECMs accounted for 76.2 percent of reverse mortgage originations in 2017. Adjustable-rate HECMs comprised 89.3 percent of loans made. Meanwhile, HECM mortgage-backed securities issuance totaled $2.25 billion in the fourth quarter, buoyed by $1.35 billion of HMBS issued in December, Ginnie Mae data show. The top five HMBS issuers accounted for $5.72 billion or 31.1 percent of all HMBS issued in 2017. American Advisors Group remained the dominant HECM lender in 2017, producing $2.8 billion over the 12-month period, which represented a ... [ Chart ]

The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. have announced offerings of multiple residential reverse mortgage pools for sale to investors. The HUD pools are comprised of approximately 650 reverse mortgage notes with a total loan balance of about $136 million. The sale consists of due and payable first-lien reverse mortgages secured by single-family, vacant residential properties where all borrowers are deceased and none is survived by a non-borrowing spouse. The reverse-mortgage sale is the third offering of its type. As with past offerings, the sale will be by competitive bidding on April 11, 2018. The loans will be sold without FHA insurance and with servicing released. The loans are expected to be offered in regional pools. Meanwhile, the FDIC will unload in open auction 3,280 FHA-insured reverse-mortgage loans from the ...

Realtors and fair-lending advocates are outraged over reports that Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson has ordered the removal of language ensuring “inclusiveness and discrimination-free communities” from the department’s mission statement. A spokesperson for HUD denied the report, blaming it on faulty reporting by the Huffington Post on March 6. Carson later followed up with his own denial in an open letter to HUD employees, which the department made public. The initial press report cited a March 5 memo written by Amy Thompson, assistant secretary for public affairs, and addressed to HUD political staff. In the memo, Thompson talked about ongoing efforts to update the mission statement to align HUD’s mission with the Trump administration’s priorities. She added that Carson helped in the development of the new statement as well as urged senior staff to ...

Accounting firm Deloitte & Touche has agreed to pay the federal government $149.5 million to settle False Claims Act liabilities arising from its audits of failed FHA lender Taylor, Bean &Whitaker Mortgage Corp.Deloitte was TBW’s independent outside auditor from 2002 through 2008, when the subprime mortgage market unraveled, triggering a financial and housing crisis. The Department of Justice alleged that, during the period in question, TBW had been running a fraudulent scheme involving the purported sale of fictitious or double-pledged mortgages. According to court documents, Lee Bentley Farkas, former chairman of TBW, and six other banking executives engaged in a more than $2.9 billion fraud scheme that contributed to the failures of Colonial Bank and TBW. Farkas and his crew allegedly misappropriated in excess of $1.4 billion from Colonial Bank’s warehouse lending division in Orlando, FL, and approximately $1.5 billion from Ocala Funding, a mortgage-lending facility controlled by TBW.

The reverse-mortgage industry is in an uncomfortable place in the first quarter of 2018 due to lower volumes, higher costs and lower margins – the same issues that ail the traditional forward-lending business currently, says a new analysis by the Stratmor Group. Applications and counseling requests are down more than expected for this time of the year despite the recent rule changes implemented by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to ensure the long-term viability of the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program. Stratmor projects HECM volume at $1.6 billion in 2018, down from approximately $2.0 billion in 2017, due mainly to dwindling refinances. “Given the reduction in the interest-rate floor, it is reasonable to expect that gain-on-sale margins will decline, but just how far, who knows,” said Jim Cameron, a senior partner at Stratmor. “The reduction in unit ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs has issued new guidance on a number of topics, including foreclosure relief in disaster areas, property management and servicing, lender’s payment or credit of veterans’ costs, acceptance of properties, redemption procedures, and reconveyance disputes. VA has extended the moratorium on foreclosures in areas that suffered the brunt of hurricanes Harvey, Maria and Irma from 180 days to 270 days to give more time for distressed homeowners with a VA mortgage to recover their financial footing. VA also extended the rescission date of guidance regarding its reconveyance dispute process and servicer statutory redemption procedures from Jan. 1, 2018, to Oct. 1, 2020. VA issued additional servicing guidance on real estate-owned properties and direct loan portfolio (VA’s national portfolio), which is currently serviced by ...

Bipartisan Measure to Protect Vets from Loan Churning Added to S.2155. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-ID, with strong support from Democrats, offered a substitute amendment to S.2155 that includes the language of S.2304, the Protecting Veterans from Predatory Lending Act, to protect veterans from abusive refinancing schemes. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, introduced S.2304 as a stand-alone bill on Jan. 11, 2018. S.2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, aims to promote economic growth, provide tailored regulatory relief, and enhance consumer protections. S.2155 was introduced on Nov. 16, 2017, and reported out of committee on Dec. 5. It was added March 8 to the Senate’s schedule for consideration. Bill Introduced to Prevent Spread of Reverse-Mortgage Foreclosures in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia City Council is considering ...

Ginnie Mae is considering a risk-sharing pilot that would have private capital absorb some of the potential losses on FHA loans securitized through the agency. In remarks at the Structured Finance Industry Group conference in Las Vegas recently, Michael Bright, executive vice president and chief operating officer with Ginnie, said no decision has been made on any credit-enhancement structure, as consultations with stakeholders are still ongoing. “We are actively looking at structures we can put in place where we bring in private capital to provide a [partial] guarantee,” explained Bright, Ginnie’s acting president. “The FHA is going be involved in a lot of them.” A risk-share partnership between FHA and private credit enhancers not only would protect the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund but reduce taxpayer risk as well, observers said. The risk-sharing concept would have private mortgage insurers assuming ...

Ginnie Mae is considering changes to the existing pledge agreement that allows mortgage-backed securities issuers to borrow against servicing rights. Revising the acknowledgement agreement between Ginnie, issuers and third-party creditors would ensure that nonbank participants would have sufficient liquidity to make timely payments to investors, said Michael Bright, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Ginnie Mae. In remarks at the recent Structured Finance Industry Group conference in Las Vegas, Bright said the change aims to strengthen Ginnie’s ability to oversee its issuer base, which has shifted from large regulated banks to mostly unregulated nonbanks. Nonbanks filled the void after a contingent of large banks exited the FHA market due to concern about the government’s use of the False Claims Act and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act in ...