In less than 10 months, a volume-heavy private-label origination deal that PHH Mortgage has with Wall Street giant Merrill Lynch is set to expire, potentially blowing a hole in its production machine. According to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, PHH acknowledges that “there can be no assurances that the agreement will be renewed on favorable terms, if at all.” If the deal were to be cancelled, PHH could see...

Most companies engaged in mortgage banking made a profit last year despite a rough first quarter, but nearly all participants earned less than in 2013. A new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends, an affiliated newsletter, found that a diverse group of 30 public companies reported a combined $13.942 billion in mortgage-banking income for 2014. Different lenders report these earnings differently, but they generally include production, servicing, secondary market and the net effect of hedges and legal costs. For the 30 lenders, mortgage-banking earnings for the year were...[Includes one data chart]

The most aggressive bidders for high-performing mortgage loan officers are nonbanks, which have been steadily stealing market share away from the megabanks...

Bank of America was among the few major depositories that reported a loss in mortgage-banking income, losing $253 million in the fourth quarter.

For all of 2014, this group of banks and nonbanks earned $14.01 billion off of mortgages, a 39.6 percent drop from the year before.

Kristie Kully of K&L Gates discussed how the rule treats issues related to splitting commissions, a subject her firm gets a lot of questions about...

A handful of nonbank mortgage companies reporting substantial losses during the fourth quarter weighed down industry-wide mortgage banking income, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of earnings reports. A diverse group of 31 mortgage lenders that includes the biggest players in the market earned a combined $3.227 billion on their mortgage banking operations during the fourth quarter. That was down 8.2 percent from the group’s $3.516 billion during the third quarter. The fourth quarter was...[Includes one data chart]

Conversations with executives at leading industry technology vendors suggest that if mortgage lenders are not already testing their systems and processes for compliance with the impending integrated disclosure rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, they are already behind the curve. Tech vendors have been working with some of their clients for months already, and in some cases for more than a year, testing systems and process as they prepare for “TRID,” the Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act integrated disclosure rule. Scott Stucky, chief strategy officer at DocuTech, said...

Not only are residential loan officers in high demand these days – especially ones with fat Rolodexes – but some of these top performers are being offered “signing bonuses” of $5,000 to $40,000, and even more to jump ship. Moreover, according to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Trends, the most aggressive bidders for high-performing LOs are nonbanks, which have been steadily stealing market share away from the megabanks the past few years. “Most depositories are not committed...

Lenders should stay as far away as possible from even the appearance of basing any part of a loan officer’s pay on the terms of a mortgage. During an Inside Mortgage Finance webinar this week, Amy Durant, an attorney with the Bodman law firm in Ann Arbor, MI, emphasized the importance of the restrictions on compensation that are embedded in a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule. The rule states...