When the going gets tough in the mortgage lending business, the tough starting laying off loan officers, underwriters, processors, and any others whose jobs are tied to the origination function. As Inside Mortgage Finance went to press this week, there were growing fears in the industry that declining applications – driven by a weakening market for refinancings – were finally taking their toll with several firms contemplating cutting production staff or already handing out pink slips. Industry executives said...

U.S Bank may proceed on a limited basis in its legal claim against Bank of America and Countrywide Financial in connection with a soured $1.75 billion MBS deal after a New York state judge ruled last week to narrow the case to just a fraction of the loans in dispute. Judge Eileen Bransten dismissed a breach of contract claim against BofA that sought to force the bank to repurchase some 4,400 loans in the pool due to “pervasive breaches” in the representations and warranties of the securities. U.S. Bank, in its capacity as trustee for HarborView Mortgage Loan Trust, sued BofA and Countrywide in August 2011 seeking repurchase of non-performing loans from the underlying residential MBS. The judge said...

Mortgage repurchases and indemnifications soared to a whopping $12.83 billion during the first quarter of 2013, a huge anomalous blip in an otherwise moderating trend. As has been the case over the past few years, industry-wide buyback figures were dramatically skewed by one institution’s settlement. Bank of America recorded a whopping $10.45 billion in mortgage repurchases and indemnifications during the first quarter of 2013, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis ... [Includes one data chart]

Reports of short sales being the new “order of the day” for servicers appear to be overblown. The proclamations were prompted by a report last week from Fitch Ratings. Banks have indeed increased their use of short sales in lieu of loan modifications when completing loss mitigation on non-agency mortgages. Meanwhile, special servicers largely avoid short sales and short sales on agency mortgages are declining. Short sales performed by the bank servicers on mortgages in non-agency mortgage-backed ...

Mortgage industry participants are largely opposed to changes to accounting for credit losses proposed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in December. FASB proposed replacing the current impairment model, which reflects incurred credit events, with a model that recognizes expected credit risks and requires consideration of a broader range of reasonable and supportable information to inform credit loss estimates. FASB also aims to reduce complexity by replacing the numerous existing ...

Residential lenders tend to like the mortgage market in the state of New York because home values there have been steadily improving for years, especially in Manhattan and surrounding areas within a decent commuting distance to the city. But for nonbanks seeking licensing approvals for their loan officers, they would like nothing more than to tell state regulators to take a hike. According to interviews with mortgage executives and some of their attorneys, the Empire State is the pits when it comes to ...

With a turning point in mortgage interest rates and refinance activity in view in the first quarter of this year, banks and thrifts began to mark up the valuations they put on mortgage servicing rights. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of bank call report data shows that the industry serviced some $5.181 trillion of home mortgages for other investors as of the end of the first quarter of 2013. That was down 3.1 percent from the end of last year. As a group, the industry estimated a ... [Includes one data chart]

Signs of healing and recovery in the nation’s housing and mortgage markets continue to proliferate. Among the most recent evidence of this is that the nation’s foreclosure inventory fell substantially in April from a year ago, according to a new report from CoreLogic. As of the end of April 2013, approximately 1.1 million homes in the U.S. were in some stage of foreclosure, compared to 1.5 million the year before, a year-over-year decrease of 24 percent. The foreclosure inventory was down 2 percent from ...

A new financing program for home energy retrofits that leverages home equity is gaining popularity among California homeowners despite efforts by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to discourage lenders from offering such products. Called the HERO program, the initiative was developed jointly by West Riverside Council of Governments and Renovate America, a San Diego-based company that works with local governments in designing low-cost financing programs for home and business owners that want to ...

When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were placed in government conservatorships in September 2008, roughly 600 banks and thrifts saw $8 billion of their preferred stock investments in the two GSEs evaporate. With both firms now wildly profitable, there is increasing hope and speculation that buyers of the “junior” preferred stock are in for an eventual payday. No one is more optimistic about that happening than the Independent Community Bankers of America. For the ICBA, the question boils down to how much on the dollar its members will receive for the shares they still own. It’s also a complicated question. When Fannie and Freddie hit the skids at the nadir of the housing bust, many banks and thrifts sold their preferred shares at market rates, that is, at something close to zero. In other words, they no longer have the stock certificates and any ownership rights. Speculators and bottom feeders do.