New GSE stress test results released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency this week reveal what many in the industry have been talking about for the past year: Because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not allowed to build capital, they would be forced to tap Uncle Sam once again for cash assistance should a financial calamity strike the nation. If a severe recession hits, Fannie and Freddie would need Treasury draws ranging from $84.4 billion to $190 billion, depending on the treatment of deferred tax assets, according to new calculations made by the GSEs and the FHFA. Adjustments to DTAs have allowed the two to book huge earnings the past year, but those accounting adjustments are now running out.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency will begin to collect additional, more specific personal information on borrowers and loans as part of the National Mortgage Database project the agency is developing in concert with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. An FHFA announcement and request for comment published in the April 28 Federal Register notes that under a “revised system of records,” the database will begin collecting demographic and personal contact info for borrowers and their households, as well as loan-level data on mortgage performance.

Officials at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac enthusiastically jumped on board a high-profile effort begun by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last week to promote eClosings as a way to reduce or eliminate many of the “pain points” associated with the mortgage closing process. At a public forum at its headquarters in Washington, DC, the CFPB announced it would launch a new, voluntary pilot project later this year that supporters hope will re-invigorate government housing agency officials, mortgage bankers and industry technology representatives and take their previous efforts related to eMortgages to a much higher level.

The architects of the ambitious bipartisan housing-finance reform bill in the Senate have put considerable emphasis on preserving access to the new secondary-mortgage market for smaller lenders. They may not have it right yet. According to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the so-called small lender mutual envisioned by Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, would face significant challenges in a new mortgage-finance world where large institutions could vertically integrate ...

Technology vendor Ellie Mae will not compensate its mortgage customers for the recent shutdown of its loan origination software platform, which delayed closings nationwide, according to customers affected by the situation. But that doesn't mean the problem won’t cost Ellie Mae any money. During an earnings call this week, company executives said the firm will accelerate spending on technology upgrades, estimating that its total capital expenditures this year will range between ...

With mortgage originations, new home sales and mortgage applications all in decline, industry representatives are scrambling to find out why. Is it rising rates? Constricted supply? Tougher underwriting? Compliance overload? A new consumer survey by loanDepot, an independent mortgage lender, suggests another, more novel reason: the fear of rejection. Fear that they will not qualify for a mortgage has stopped nearly half (46 percent) of all potential homebuyers from ...

Approximately a third of independent mortgage bankers that had not previously made home loans to borrowers with credit scores under 600 began to do so during the fourth quarter of 2013 as mortgage production volumes declined, according to a Richey May & Co. quarterly trend report. Richey May, a provider of accounting and business advisory services and technology to the mortgage industry, based its report on last year’s lending activities by 29 independent mortgage banking firms ...

Officials at TD Bank project that the lender will be able to weather the downturn in originations better than most because of its diversified product offerings – including portfolio mortgages – and an emphasis on cross-selling products. Mike Pedersen, president and CEO of TD Bank, said the bank’s goal is to continue to outpace the market in terms of originations. “We still believe we’ll outgrow the market, and that’s because we are underpenetrated against our customer base ...

As previously reported by Inside Mortgage Trends, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau did in fact announce plans last week to roll out a voluntary eClosing pilot project later this year – along with guidelines that lay out the minimum functions required of participants as well as the features the CFPB wants to test in the pilot. To join the bureau’s pilot on electronic closings, each participant must have a system that meets minimal technical capabilities and requirements ...

Mortgage industry participants should expect the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to cast both a wider and deeper dragnet of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data compared to the Federal Reserve’s oversight of the nearly 40-year-old law, according to CoreLogic. A new CoreLogic report forecasts a more muscular collection of industry information following the Dodd-Frank Act’s transfer of HMDA supervision and enforcement from the Fed to the bureau, including a significant shift in ...