The five largest mortgage servicers that got into trouble because of their flawed servicing and foreclosure practices have passed their final test for compliance with the 2012 National Mortgage Settlement, according to the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight. The OMSO report summarizes a set of five compliance reports filed by NMS Monitor Joseph Smith with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for five servicers that were subject to the $25 billion ...

Bank of America introduced a new affordable lending program last week that allows 3 percent downpayments and no required reserve funds in most instances. The bank partnered with Freddie Mac and Self-Help Ventures Fund, a Durham, NC-based nonprofit, to offer conforming loans to borrowers whose income doesn’t exceed 100 percent of the area median income. There’s also no private mortgage insurance on the loans as “Self-Help Ventures Fund is taking the first loss position in the event of a loan default through a recourse agreement,” said a Freddie spokesman. The Affordable Loan Solution mortgage was designed to let creditworthy homebuyers who meet specific income limits and other requirements to become homeowners at an affordable entry point, said...

Many small and medium-sized nonbanks have been earning steady profits the past three years, but all that ended in the fourth quarter of 2015, thanks to the integrated disclosure rule known as TRID. At least that’s what some warehouse managers told Inside Mortgage Finance. These credit executives, who spoke under the condition their names not be used, were somewhat surprised by the development, but were quick to caution that about a third of their clients posted losses. The managers also noted...

Guaranty-fee income increased in 2015 at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac despite the fact that average g-fees on new business acquisitions were down slightly. The two government-sponsored enterprises reported a combined $17.33 billion in net income for all of last year, a 20.9 percent drop from 2014. However, g-fee income at the two GSEs was up 8.2 percent from 2014 to 2015, and continued to account for a growing share of their income as their investment portfolios shrank. G-fee income did not climb...

Mortgage originators selling loans into MBS last week likely were hit with “pair-off” fees from secondary-market investors who were expecting delivery of higher-yielding mortgages, a proposition complicated by the sudden downdraft in rates. As one secondary market executive noted: “A forward sale into an MBS is not a perfect hedge. Then again, nothing is a perfect hedge.” Originators that fund billions of dollars each quarter use...

The proposed fiscal year 2017 Ginnie Mae staff budget will meet current operational needs, but staffing for the long term will have to be reevaluated, according to GNMA President Ted Tozer. Tozer said the proposed agency budget of $23 million for personnel costs, “along with leveraging contractors and carefully prioritizing hires,” will meet the agency’s current needs. However, officials will take a hard look at its staffing requirements “from a long-term, strategic point of view,” he noted. Tozer was reportedly disappointed...

Commercial banks and savings institutions reported an unexpectedly strong $4.515 billion in mortgage-banking income during the fourth quarter of 2015, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends ranking and analysis of call report data. The industry’s fourth-quarter results represented a solid 18.8 percent increase over the previous quarter, and it brought full-year mortgage-banking income to $18.474 billion – an 11.8 percent gain over 2014 ... [Includes one data chart]

Competition for originations by brokers is set to intensify as PennyMac Financial Services is preparing to enter the wholesale channel. Company officials said the nonbank is aiming to have a “leadership role” in terms of volume among wholesale lenders. “The wholesale channel currently comprises approximately 10 percent of the total mortgage market, and we believe there is a significant opportunity in this channel for a company like PennyMac Financial, with the strong ...

Utilizing a sophisticated analytical capability to assess end-to-end profitability of products, channels and operating units and better manage the economics and risks of the portfolio can provide a powerful boost to mortgage servicing operations – and some of the most intelligently run organizations are already reaping the rewards of doing so, according to a recent white paper by PricewaterhouseCoopers. “Today, many companies rely on general ledger reporting and ...

More than 100 members of Congress expressed serious concern over a Department of Labor proposal to revise the existing overtime rule for white-collar employees, fearing it would adversely impact employers, including those in the mortgage industry. A joint bipartisan letter to DOL Secretary Thomas Perez signed by 108 House members said expanding overtime protections to help more workers, as proposed by the DOL, would end up hurting them and ...