Demand for jumbo mortgages was expected to decline due to various provisions included in tax reform legislation but applications for jumbos didn’t dip in early 2018, according to CoreLogic. The analytics firm tracked loan applications in high-cost areas, concentrated in California and the northeast. Applications for purchase mortgages in the first quarter of 2018 were compared with trends seen in the prior four years. “We didn’t observe any meaningful change in purchase loan application ...

TIAA and Angel Oak Companies look likely to price separate new MBS before the end of the second quarter, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. JPMorgan Chase is also preparing an MBS that could differ from its typical issuance. Merrill Lynch agreed to a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week regarding non-agency mortgage-backed security trading from 2009 through 2012 ... [Includes two briefs]

Reverse mortgage lenders started out strong in the first three month of 2018 with a 19.2 percent increase in Home Equity Conversion Mortgage production from the previous period. HECM endorsements totaled $5.4 billion in the first quarter, with purchase reverse loans accounting for the bulk of originations, 81.9 percent. First quarter production was up 18.5 percent from the same period last year. Meanwhile, HECM mortgage-backed securities issuance totaled $2.97 billion for the quarter, down from $3.25 billion in the prior quarter, Ginnie Mae data showed. The top five HECM originators in sequential order – American Advisors Group, Reverse Mortgage Funding, One Reverse Mortgage, Liberty Home Equity Solutions, and Synergy One Lending – accounted for $1.66 billion, or 30.8 percent, of total production during the first quarter. American Advisors maintained its top ranking with $841.4 million of HECM loans, which ... [Charts]

Wells Fargo ranked first among non-agency jumbo originators, followed by Chase and Bank of America…

Mortgage production indicators were down almost across the board during the first quarter of 2018, but the jumbo market posted some of the biggest declines of all. [Includes three data charts.]

In settling with the SEC, Merrill Lynch did not admit or deny the findings…

JMP likes the higher profit margins that accompany non-QM lending…

Besides selling RFC, the publicly traded FNB is consolidating 20 of its branches in a cost cutting move.

Home equity outstanding hit a peak of $13.43 trillion in the first quarter of 2006 then tumbled during the financial crisis...

To conservatives in the financial services industry, Mick Mulvaney is a hero.