A recently unearthed Treasury Department “action memorandum” from 2010 makes clear the White House’s commitment to ensuring that common shareholders in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should never have access “to any positive earnings from the GSEs in the future.” The memo, approved by then-Secretary Timothy Geithner, asks that Treasury waive the GSEs’ periodic commitment fee for 2011.
Mortgage servicing helped lenders increase their mortgage-banking income during the fourth quarter of 2013, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of earnings reports from 10 major lenders, including the top three in the industry. The 10 companies reported a combined $2.193 billion in servicing-related income during the fourth quarter, up 19.8 percent from the previous period. That was considerably more than the $1.324 billion the lenders reported on production-related income ...
Officials at Two Harbors Investment are touting the real estate investment trust’s recent admission into the Federal Home Loan Bank system as a way to diversify funding options for originations of jumbo mortgages, although FHLBank financing may not play a major role in the REIT’s funding in the current environment. In December, TH Insurance Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Two Harbors, was granted membership in the FHLBank of Des Moines. Two Harbors said it appears to be the first REIT to receive ...
Declining loan production could lead to rampant consolidation among mortgage vendors this year, particularly technology firms, according to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Trends. “Revenues at some of these firms are going to take a nosedive over the next year or so,” said Anthony Garritano, founder of the Progress in Lending Association, an industry think-tank that focuses on the tech sector. “The drop in production volume in the fourth quarter was more than most anticipated ...
Proprietary loan modifications, the dominant form of loss mitigation, have declined significantly in the past year, while activity in the Home Affordable Modification Program has remained relatively level, according to the Hope Now alliance. Some 137,879 loan mods were completed in the fourth quarter of 2013, down 24.0 percent from the previous quarter and a 44.0 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2012. Eric Selk, executive director of Hope Now, said the decline in mods “closely tracks” with ...
State regulators are trying to take the National Mortgage Licensing System mortgage call report to the next level in terms of analytical capability. If the vendor side of the industry has its way, this will be accomplished in a manner that relies on the latest in technology to make the compliance process easier for lenders and report users. As the annual NMLS conference in Miami was winding down late this week, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors was, as of press time, set to convene a panel of ...
Nearly half of all mortgage borrowers did not refinance their home loan during the period between 2009 and 2012, when mortgage interest rates declined steadily, according to a Fannie Mae survey. The government-sponsored enterprise found that 40 percent to 50 percent of borrowers, for some reason, did not take advantage of low interest rates to reduce their monthly mortgage payments through refinancing. To try to get at why borrowers don’t refinance when the opportunity seems ripe, Fannie economist ...
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