Applications for mortgages related to purchases of new homes in February increased by 16.0 percent from the previous month.

Virtually all the shrinkage in 2016 took place among the four megabanks with over $1 trillion in assets: Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citibank.

About one-third of the lenders surveyed by Fannie currently use technology service providers and another third are investigating next-generation technology service providers.

Mortgage lenders’ efforts at compliance with post-financial crisis regulation, largely from the CFPB, shifted their focus from fully implementing e-mortgage processes but also helped them develop the necessary technology to move forward with them in the future, according to a new report from analysts at Moody’s Investors Service. “Following the crisis, lenders focused on adapting technology to implement regulations such as the ability-to-repay [qualified mortgage] rule and the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule rather than on e-mortgages,” the analysts said. “The implementation of those regulations has, however, led to advancements in the technology needed to originate e-mortgages by providing, for example, a seamless data feed between the mortgage loan application and the disclosure documents.” Further, “Some lenders and servicers have also ...

The banking industry continued to backpedal away from the business of servicing home mortgages for other investors during 2016, according to an exclusive new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call-report data. Commercial banks and savings institutions serviced $3.808 trillion of home mortgages for other investors at the end of 2016, most of which are connected to loans in mortgage-backed securities trusts. That was down $71.6 billion from the end of the third quarter, or 1.8 percent. Over the past two years, banks reduced...[Includes one data table]

The correspondent lending channel was the big winner last year in terms of increased production and market share – at least in the conventional-conforming and jumbo sectors, according to a new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. Competition among the three main production channels evened out in the government-insured market. Correspondent production of conventional-conforming mortgages increased...

It’s been roughly 42 months since the last nonbank mortgage lender went public. And it could be another 42 months before the next one comes along the way things stand today, which is kind of odd given that the industry is coming off its second-best production year of the decade. But most publicly traded nonbanks, with a few exceptions, haven’t exactly lit the world on fire the past two years. Two of the nation’s largest nonbank servicers – Walter/Ditech and Ocwen Financial – continue to trade near their 52-week lows and at a steep discount to their all-time highs. In the case of Ocwen, the fall has been...

There are currently more buyers for retail origination platforms than there are entities available for sale, according to Strategic Mortgage Finance Group. Stratmor helped advise First Priority Financial last year as the lender was being acquired by Caliber Home Loans. First Priority had more than 370 employees with branches in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Iowa. Terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed. “This deal, along with several other transactions in the Stratmor pipeline, now enable...

A data management and analytics firm is offering a service that can identify a lender’s existing borrowers who “need” an offer for a cash-out refinance. Altair Customer Intelligence said it offers lenders a number of ways to retain existing borrowers. While cash-out refinance activity is well below the levels seen before the financial crisis, many borrowers have built up equity in their homes in recent years, making cash-outs an option. Steve Ferrell, ?inbound marketing manager at Altair, said...

Retail banks and mortgage lenders have enjoyed a pretty good run of consistently improving customer satisfaction and loyalty over the last five years, but they could blow it if they’re not careful by exerting excessive sales pressure on borrowers, a new report by market research company J.D. Power suggests. In response to the recent fraudulent account creation scandal at Wells Fargo, J.D. Power decided to take a closer look at how this development affected retail bank customers across the U.S. and to get a better sense of the phenomenon of cross-selling. The survey found...