Officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Reserve have gone on the offensive to refute claims from lenders and their advocates regarding the ability-to-repay rule. At a hearing this week by the House Financial Services Committee, CFPB Director Richard Cordray noted that he recently met with the CEOs of the top 40 mortgage companies as part of an event hosted by the Mortgage Bankers Association. Cordray said the CEOs revealed that none of the lenders have faced lawsuits alleging violations of standards for qualified mortgages. “All this foaming at the mouth about legal liability did not...[Includes one data table]

David Lykken, managing partner of Transformational Mortgage Solutions, said he welcomes PIMCO’s investment, believing that it’s a huge positive for the industry.

The Texas Republican blamed the CFPB and DFA for raising prices and “cutting off" access to mortgages…

Last year, loan production turned out better than many anticipated...

While nonbanks have taken a much bigger share of the servicing market, the top-ranked subservicer is Cenlar, a New Jersey-based savings bank.

Through the first half of 2015, banks and thrifts sold $364.35 billion of home loans, up 37.8 percent from the same period last year.

MBA chief Dave Stevens noted: “We’ve seen that before, when enforcement does replace regulation, and that’s our greatest concern.”

In August, first-time buyers accounted for 56.9 percent of agency purchase mortgages, up from 54.5 percent a year ago.

Mortgage banking income rose substantially in the second quarter of 2015 mostly because lenders sold more loans in the secondary market, but the outlook for the second half of the year is murkier. Commercial banks and thrifts sold $198.64 billion of home loans during the second quarter, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call-report data. That was up 19.9 percent from the first three months of the year, and it represented the busiest ... [Includes one data chart]

Officials in the mortgage industry continue to obsess about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s pending integrated disclosure rule, but perhaps they should be paying closer attention to complying with the CFPB’s existing mortgage origination and servicing rules, a top bureau official suggested this week. Speaking at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s 2015 regulatory compliance conference in Washington, DC, Peggy Twohig, assistant director for supervision policy ...