Some industry executives have been predicting a correction in mortgage hiring in the coming months, with large layoffs anticipated at shops that have focused too strongly on refinancings.

As gain-on-sale margins decline, MSR marks will rise...

Third-ranked Bank of America had the slowest growth among the three banks, with a $189.1 billion portfolio as of the end of the third quarter…

Patel also will serve as a member of the lender's executive management team.

AMC acquired Stewart’s residential due diligence and servicing functions, including credit, compliance, origination and servicing quality control reviews.

Growth was far from uniform among servicers, Inside Mortgage Finance found…

The portfolio holdings of first-lien residential mortgages at banks and thrifts continued to increase during the third quarter of 2016, according to a ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Banks and thrifts held $1.93 trillion in first liens at Sept. 30, up 1.6 percent from the previous quarter and a 3.9 percent increase compared with the third quarter of 2015. Originations and acquisitions of mortgages – both jumbos and non-jumbos ... [Includes one data chart]

Ginnie Mae guaranteed a total of $507.46 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities in 2016, its biggest annual volume ever, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside FHA/VA Lending. That was up 16.4 percent from the agency’s previous record of $435.80 billion set in 2015. (Those figures include MBS backed by FHA home-equity conversion mortgages, which are not included in the table below or in the rankings on pages 3-5.) In 2016, Ginnie guaranteed $497.03 billion of MBS backed by traditional forward mortgages, also a record, which was up 16.9 percent from the previous year. The biggest factor in last year’s record-setting production was the boom in VA lending, particularly VA refinance loans. Issuers securitized a record $203.03 billion of VA loans last year, up 33.0 percent from the 2015 total. Some 54.3 percent of those loans were refinance transactions. Total VA refi loan ... [4 charts]

The FHA this year will focus mainly on the completion and implementation of the Defect Taxonomy to help lenders easily identify and categorize loan defects found in FHA-insured loans. At least that was the plan announced by the outgoing Obama administration. The agency urged lenders to be on the lookout for detailed information about Defect Taxonomy and other process improvements in the coming months. “As we begin to implement these changes and transition from current processes, some lenders may experience a temporary decrease in loans selected for review,” the FHA noted in Lender Insight, which updates lenders on the latest rulemakings and policy changes. Announced in June last year, Defect Taxonomy is part of the Blueprint for Access, which embodies three core concepts: identifying a defect, capturing the sources and causes of a defect, and assessing the ...

United Shore Financial Services of Troy, MI, has agreed to pay $48 million to resolve allegations of FHA-related fraud, adding to the more than $7 billion in settlements and judgments the Department of Justice has collected since 2009. United Shore, parent company of United Wholesale Mortgage and Shore Mortgage, was accused of improperly originating mortgages and falsely certifying compliance with FHA requirements. Originated between Jan. 1, 2006, and Dec. 31, 2011, the loans eventually turned bad, resulting in significant losses to the FHA insurance fund. The complaint did not specify the number and total amount of the bad loans United Shore originated or the size of FHA’s losses on those loans. United Shore was charged with violation of the False Claims Act, becoming the latest financial institution to join a growing list of FHA lenders that have opted to settle, rather than litigate, ...