For Chicago’s Cole Taylor Bank, what a difference a year makes. Last week, Taylor Capital Group, the $4.7 billion holding company of Cole Taylor Bank, announced a major expansion of the bank’s retail mortgage unit with the hiring of 60 loan officers. The expansion will nearly double the number of Cole Taylor Mortgage retail origination offices and represents...

Homeowners who received foreclosure counseling through the federally funded National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program obtained loan modifications that resulted in significantly lower monthly mortgage payments than they would have received without counseling, according to NeighborWorks America. The program has helped reduce borrowers’ monthly payments on their homes by an average of $2,100 in annual savings for each counseled homeowner. This represented more than $372 million in annual savings to homeowners who received...

Tentative signs of stability in home prices in early 2012 have yet to spur a rebound in home-equity lending, as the outstanding balance of second mortgages fell to its lowest level in seven years. According to the Federal Reserve, the supply of home-equity loans fell 2.7 percent in the first quarter of 2012 to just $849.5 billion. The home-equity market, which includes home-equity lines of credit and closed-end second mortgages, has shrunk by 24.9 percent since peaking...(Includes three data charts)

Old Republic International Corp.’s top management said it is postponing indefinitely plans to reenter the mortgage guaranty market after cancelling a planned spinoff and reversing the partial leveraged buyout of its subsidiary, Republic Financial Indemnity Group. In a conference call this week, ORI Chief Executive Officer Aldo Zucaro stood by the company’s decision to withdraw the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in May for spinning off RFIG common stock to ORI shareholders. He said stakeholders, including the North Carolina Department of Insurance, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, banks, debtholders and shareholders, rejected...

Banks and thrifts increased their holdings of first-lien residential mortgages in the first quarter of 2012 compared with a year ago, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance Bank Mortgage Database. The 3.0 percent growth rate was partly due to originations of nonconforming mortgages, which helped offset portfolio runoff. Banks and thrifts held $1.74 trillion in first-liens in portfolio at the end of the first quarter. Among the top three bank portfolio lenders, only Wells Fargo ... [Includes one data chart]

Capital rules proposed by federal regulators last week for banks could have a significant impact on originations and holdings of non-agency mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. The changes are part of Basel III reforms. Non-bank special servicers have already started to increase their portfolios due to sales by banks getting a head start on complying with Basel III rules. Industry analysts warn that originations of “non-vanilla” mortgages will also be curtailed. “Following the qualified mortgage rules and ...

Attorneys representing non-agency mortgage-backed security issuers suggest fighting repurchase-request lawsuits to narrow the claims and eventually settling such lawsuits. Jason Halper and Martin Seidel, partners at the law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, said reducing the claims can help lead to a better settlement for issuers. “You can very often narrow the case substantially,” Seidel suggested this week during a presentation by the State Attorneys General Enforcement Network. Among other issues ...

With an increasing amount of PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust’s revenue coming from correspondent originations, some have questioned how much longer the company will remain a real estate investment trust for tax purposes. Officials at the company said the REIT status remains beneficial, though they are considering other options. REITs must distribute at least 90 percent of their taxable income to their shareholders each year and generally are not subject to federal or state income taxes. REITs also face limitations ...

Berkshire Hathaway became the lead bidder for Residential Capital’s loan portfolio this week while Nationstar Mortgage remained the stalking horse bidder for ResCap’s mortgage servicing rights and origination platform. ResCap’s parent company Ally Financial was previously the top bidder for ResCap’s loan portfolio. Auctions for the MSRs, origination platform and loan portfolio are expected in October. An investigation by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau helped a borrower receive a ... [Includes two briefs]

A new secondary market policy announced by Wells Fargo last week is sending ripples across the industry and could potentially cause the FHA Streamline Refinance program to falter in the coming weeks. Major FHA lenders have quietly adopted similar policies as FHA refinance volume, fueled by increased streamline refi business, more than doubled over the week. Wells Fargo raised eyebrows by announcing it will do FHA streamline refis only on loans in its own servicing portfolio and will not accept streamline refis from third-party originators. The top FHA producer in the first quarter of 2012 said focusing on ...