Walter Investment Management Corp. is evaluating options for its reverse mortgage business, including the possibility of selling some or all of its assets or collaborating with third parties. WIMC’s reverse-mortgage segment has been adversely affected by the Department of Housing and Urban Developments new requirements, raising the need for additional working capital to finance Ginnie Mae buyouts, according to the company’s 10-Q disclosures. The company reported pre-tax losses of $93 million in the second quarter of 2017. The reverse-mortgage segment reported $16.5 million of pre-tax loss for the same period, following a pre-tax loss of $26.9 million in the prior year quarter. During the second quarter, WIMC’s reverse-mortgage business generated $15.4 million in revenue, down $0.7 million year-over-year. Cash generated by the origination, purchase and securitization of Home ...

Ginnie Mae’s Fiscal YTD MBS Issuances Surpass $400 Billion. A modest volume increase in monthly securitizations in July pushed Ginnie Mae’s FY 2017 overall volume past $400 billion. Ginnie reported that $1.86 trillion of its mortgage-backed securities were outstanding as of July 1, up from $1.84 trillion in June and from $1.70 trillion from the same date last year. Last month, mortgage lenders pumped a hefty $112.4 billion of single-family home loans into the MBS platforms of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae, according to an analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. Circuit Courts Split on DOL Overtime Rule. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently held that mortgage underwriters are not “administrative employees” and, therefore, not exempt from the overtime protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The court’s ruling in McKeen-Chaplin v. Provident Savings Bank overturned a ...

Mortgage origination volume was up substantially in all product categories during the second quarter, but the government-insured market posted the biggest gain, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. Mortgage lenders produced an estimated $125.0 billion of government-insured home loans during the second quarter, up 19.0 percent from the first three months of the year. That nudged the government-insured share of the market up to 27.5 percent, the highest it’s been since early 2010. In the immediate aftermath of the housing-market meltdown, jumbo and nonprime production was depressed significantly, boosting the shares of government and conventional-conforming production. FHA and VA production typically gains...[Includes two data tables]

A California nonbank is in the market with an excess servicing deal tied to an $11 billion Ginnie Mae portfolio, according to investment bankers familiar with the auction process. Sources contend the sale is being managed in part by Andrew Platt, a former managing director at MountainView Capital Group, Denver, a firm that’s an active broker of servicing rights. Platt now serves as vice chairman of Sprout Mortgage, a nonprime lender based in Henderson, NV. The deal is...

Members of Congress have left Washington, DC, for their summer recess, and mortgage industry representatives are using the time to plan strategy and educate lawmakers on key issues to help propel a number of measures across the finish line before the year ends. The most time-sensitive issues are reauthorizing the national flood insurance program and setting budgets for FHA and Ginnie Mae activity in fiscal 2018, which begins Oct. 1, 2017. Lawmakers will be looking to deal with these in September. Authority for the National Flood Insurance Program expires...

A new report found that fewer millennials have taken out FHA loans in the past couple of months and more choosing conventional loans. Separately, mortgage brokers are getting most of their business from Generation X. According to June data from the Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker, approximately 63 percent of all closed loans made to millennial borrowers were conventional mortgage loans with an average amount of $205,066, while 36 percent were FHA loans with an average amount of $173,381. Conventional and FHA loans, which tend to track in cycles, make up...

The private mortgage insurance business saw a jump in its share of the primary MI market during the second quarter, and all six active firms racked up solid gains in earnings, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. Private MIs reported $70.65 billion in new primary MI written through traditional flow business activity during the second quarter. That was up 38.4 percent from the first three months of the year, though still slightly below the pace set in late 2016. Meanwhile, the government-insurance market faltered...[Includes two data tables]

The Department of Justice and three other federal agencies will rake in $182 million from separate agreements by Wells Fargo and PHH Mortgage over False Claims Act charges. The PHH settlement features a rare FCA action involving loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Wells Fargo agreed to pay $108 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2006 and unsealed in 2011. It alleged that the bank overcharged veterans by masking unallowable fees and concealing the fact in order to obtain VA guarantees for the mortgage loans. At the same time, Wells allegedly falsely certified to the VA that it was not charging improper fees. Similar charges were brought...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently held that mortgage underwriters are not “administrative employees” and, therefore, not exempt from the overtime protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The court’s ruling in McKeen-Chaplin v. Provident Savings Bank overturned a lower court decision and deepened a split among the circuit courts on whether certain employees of mortgage companies qualify for overtime pay. Given the conflicting circuit court opinions, attorneys are...

Correspondent-originated mortgages were the only segment of the VA market that saw an increase in activity during the second quarter, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside FHA/VA Lending. Overall, VA loan securitization declined by 1.8 percent from the first to the second quarter of this year. But delivery of correspondent-originated VA loans was up 4.9 percent, while both the retail and wholesale-broker channels saw declines. It was a slightly different picture in the FHA segment of the Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities market. Overall volume was up 9.8 percent from the first quarter, with all three channels posting gains. Brokers saw the biggest increase in FHA business, with volume up 14.5 percent, although the correspondent channel also posted a 12.7 percent increase and remained the most active of the three production venues. Loan characteristics held steady in both ... [Charts]