BAML suggested that one of the reasons prepayment speeds on jumbos have been relatively slow is the presence of self-employed borrowers…

Depending on its buying spree, Freedom could easily leap-frog into the number four originator spot, bypassing PennyMac Financial, Bank of America, and U.S. Bank.

LO automation could be complicated by compliance. What if there’s a RESPA violation and charges are filed? Who goes to prison: the computer or the supervisor of the computer?...

In a recent letter to CFPB Director Richard Cordray, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-MO, called upon the bureau to address potential abuses by financial technology companies that may be engaged in predatory small-business lending. In so doing, he asked that the CFPB “investigate whether fintech companies engaged in small business lending are complying with all anti-discrimination laws, including the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.” The congressman’s letter noted that fintech lending companies, also known as alternative small-business lenders, are a fast-growing industry offering a new wave of innovation, but they also pose many risks, he added. “Over the past decade, there’s been a very large increase of Silicon Valley start-ups and technology companies that are functioning like banks,” Cleaver said. “The CFPB ...

During the fourth quarter of 2016, lenders repurchased just $207.31 million of home loans, a 37.0 percent decline from the third quarter.

Issues involving regulatory compliance have declined significantly under the Trump administration.

When it comes to mortgage banking M&A, it’s still a seller’s market…

The NAMB KickStart program provides a grant of up to $10,000 to help a mortgage broker launch his or her own shop. The money comes from UWM.

Housing finance reform, especially if it weakens mortgage underwriting standards, could have a negative impact on private-label MBS as well as the government-sponsored enterprises’ credit risk-transfer transactions, according to a newly published report from Moody’s Investor Services. Analysts said that various reform proposals could reduce the influence that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have in the market and likely increase credit risk in new MBS in the short-term. Combined with a rising interest rate environment, such reform could have a credit-negative effect. Loan origination processes and the kinds of loans produced could become...

Wells Fargo, Deutsche Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland have agreed to pay investors $165 million to resolve allegations of misrepresenting the quality of mortgage loans underlying securities issued by now-defunct subprime lender NovaStar Mortgage. The agreement was announced last week subject to approval by Judge Deborah Batts of the U.S. District Court for the Second District of New York, according to a report by Reuters. At issue is $7.7 billion in residential MBS delivered into various trusts and sold to investors, including pension funds, prior to the housing crash. A multi-employer union pension plan led by the New Jersey Carpenters Health Fund filed...