Competition from banks for conforming mortgages prompted Redwood Trust to discontinue its aggregation of mortgages for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises, according to officials at the real estate investment trust. “The business assumption that has changed is that we no longer believe that our conduit can generate sufficient conforming loan sale margins, primarily due to the unrelenting competitive pricing pressure from some major banks,” Redwood said in a document ...

Ocwen Financial recently reported a large loss in the fourth quarter of 2015 along with investigations by a number of regulators, leading to a sharp decline in the company’s stock price and pressure to restructure its priorities. Ocwen took a pre-tax loss of $129.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2015. The biggest contributor to the loss was a non-cash charge of $101.9 million to establish a valuation allowance against deferred tax assets in the United States and the U.S. Virgin Islands ...

The pessimistic pricing in the secondary market for jumbo mortgage-backed securities with exposure to the oil industry might be unwarranted, according to Standard & Poor’s. The rating service completed a stress test on the 59 jumbo MBS issued in 2012 and beyond. “Assuming the entire oil-sector workforce in three major oil-producing states defaults on their mortgages, even under extreme economic stress, the incremental collateral pool losses ... [Includes three briefs]

The FHA’s Home Equity Reverse Mortgage Information Technology (HERMIT) system will shift to a new vendor-operated host data center beginning March 21, 2016. Reverse Market Insight (RMI), a provider of data, analysis and portfolio valuation services for the reverse mortgage industry, has been tapped to manage, maintain and operate HERMIT. Launched in October 2012, HERMIT is an online, web-based automated system that monitors and tracks the FHA’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage portfolio and automates insurance claim payments. HERMIT will shut down temporarily from 7 p.m., March 16, to 8 a.m., March 21, in order to complete the transition. The FHA said there would be no changes to the system’s functionality during transition to the host data center. User IDs and passwords for accessing HERMIT will remain unchanged. Following HERMIT’s transition to the ...

The supply of “conforming-jumbo” mortgage originations flowing into agency mortgage-backed securities programs contracted sharply in the fourth quarter of 2015, but overall jumbo lending still held up better than the overall market, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. During the final three months of 2015, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae securitized $24.69 billion of mortgages with loan amounts that exceeded the baseline conforming loan limit, $417,000… [Includes three charts]

Refinance activity was heavy in the first half of 2015, and jumbo borrowers typically have more to gain by pulling the refi trigger.

D’Urso is the second top executive to leave Clayton over the past six months. Another key departure came this past fall when Tom Donatacci left...

The market had largely abandoned risky lending products before the QM rule ever kicked in…

Marketplace lenders may want to beef up their compliance staffs: The CFPB is now accepting complaints.

The Treasury Department helped facilitate discussions among the working group...