Direct-mail advertising campaigns touting refinances help prompt borrowers to refi, according to a study by economists at the Federal Reserve. They added that policymakers should consider making it easier for lenders to target borrowers for refis. Seran Grundl and You Suk Kim, economists at the Fed, authored a recent working paper that examined how borrowers react to receiving ads in the mail for refinances. They said the effect of advertising on consumer mistakes and ...

Commercial banks and thrifts reported a decline in the volume of home mortgages they repurchased in the first quarter of 2017, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call-report data. The industry repurchased, or provided other indemnification, related to $801.3 million of home mortgages during the first three months of the year. That was down 1.5 percent from the previous period. First-quarter repurchases were actually up 4.9 percent from ... [Includes one data chart]

New research from Black Knight Financial Services finds that the underwater homeowner population has fallen to 1.8 million borrowers, dipping below 2.0 million for the first time since 2006. Researchers also expect “tappable equity” to hit a record high this summer, according to their new report on data from the first four months of 2017. “The steady upward trajectory of home prices continues to improve the equity positions of many homeowners,” said Ben Graboske, executive vice president ...

California remains the biggest purchase-mortgage market for private mortgage insurers, and it looks to be shifting away from FHA, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of agency mortgage-backed securities data. In the second quarter of 2017, private MIs wrote coverage for $5.20 billion of California purchase mortgages – or 36.0 percent of insured loans in the state. A year ago, the private MI share was 33.1 percent. Over that period ... [Includes one data chart]

The $5.5 billion (to be) paid by RBS should boost GSE earnings big time...

Walter Investment Management Corp. has secured a second round of limited waivers from its warehouse providers, a signal that its lenders are being patient – for now. According to interviews with warehouse executives and consultants, the granting of short-term waivers can be a common practice, but if those waivers go into a third or fourth round it can get expensive for the borrower and may signal an end to the patience of a company’s bankers. Walter, the parent of Ditech Financial – the nation’s 13th largest residential servicer – reported...

Scams aimed at stealing homebuyers’ closing funds persist, according to a warning last week from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The warning follows similar notices in recent years from the Federal Trade Commission. “The scammers attempt to steal the homebuyer’s closing funds – for example, their downpayment and closing costs – by sending the homebuyer an email posing as the homebuyer’s real estate agent or settlement agent (title company, escrow officer or attorney),” according to Davida Farrar, counsel in the CFPB’s consumer education and engagement division. In a post on the CFPB’s website, Farrar said...

Mortgage applications last week were down 7.4 percent compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association...

Some 15.2 percent of the mortgages in Chase’s second-quarter MBS were eligible for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises.

In the SEC filing, Annaly reveals that it owns servicing assets through an “ongoing joint venture with a leading sovereign wealth fund.” The SWF was not identified…