The average mortgage banking firm saw a decline in net income during the fourth quarter of 2014, but the industry ended 2014 in much better shape than it started the year, according to data reported by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The average firm participating in the MBA’s Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report earned $901,000 in pretax income during the fourth quarter. That was off 36.9 percent from the third quarter, and it brought total income for 2014 to ...

Banks and thrifts reported a 10.3 percent increase in mortgage repurchases and indemnifications during the fourth quarter of 2014 compared with the previous quarter, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call-report data. Despite the late-year uptick, 2014 still ranked as the most benign for the industry since banks began reporting repurchases in 2008. Institutions repurchased or made indemnifications totaling just $4.25 billion ... [Includes one data chart]

Although JPMorgan Chase recently inked a deal to buy $45 billion of Fannie Mae mortgage servicing rights from Ocwen Financial, the bank plans to keep shedding receivables, at least over the short term. In particular, according to interviews with deal makers and analysts, Chase could see its “servicing for others” portfolio fall to $600 billion from $800 billion over the next few years before it begins rising again. “These reductions will come in the form of runoff and ...

Home-equity loan holdings by banks and thrifts have largely held steady in terms of performance while declining slightly in balance during the past year, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance Bank Mortgage Database. Banks and thrifts held $982.99 billion in home-equity lines of credit, HELOC commitments and closed-end second liens as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2014. The holdings declined by 0.8 percent compared with the previous quarter ... [Includes one data chart]

Large bank servicers significantly reduced their use of principal reduction loan modifications in the past year, according to new data from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Principal reduction mods – which are largely limited to non-agency mortgages – were used in 6.5 percent of the loan mods completed in the fourth quarter of 2014 by eight large bank servicers tracked by the OCC. In the fourth quarter of 2013, large bank servicers employed principal reduction on ...

Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities issuance fell in the first quarter of 2015 with FHA volume slipping during the period, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending’s analysis of agency data.Ginnie MBS production in the first quarter totaled $79.8 billion, down from $80.6 billion in the 4Q14, despite a 29.3 percent increase from February to March. On the other hand, production was up 41.6 percent from a year ago.FHA-backed Ginnie MBS issuance dropped 3.1 percent in the first quarter from 4Q14, ending the period with $39.9 billion. Year-over-year volume rose 22.0 percent from the previous year. On the other hand, refinancing increased to $12.3 billion from $7.8 billion during the same stretch. VA securitization totaled $35.5 billion, up from $33.6 billion quarter-over-quarter, powered by refinance loans. Rural housing securitization totaled $4.2 billion in the first quarter, down from $5. 7 billion in 4Q14. Securitized FHA purchase loans rose 7.7 percent in March from February, while ... [3 charts].

The Department of Veterans Affairs will continue removing barriers to delivering home-loan benefits to veterans and service members in 2015, focusing more on further improvements in appraisal and servicing. “It’s going to be geared around improving on the things we have already done,” said Mike Frueh, director of the VA Home Loan Guaranty program. VA loan originations are on the upswing and the agency wants to maintain the trend by getting more vets and active-duty personnel into the program. Last year, 18 percent of VA loans were to active-duty service members and 82 percent to veterans. Frueh said the VA program is by far the better deal. Interest rates are lower on a VA loan than on conventional loans and, generally requires no downpayment, he noted. In addition, VA loans do not have mortgage insurance. Based on the volume of VA loans originated in 2014, veteran borrowers ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General has finalized settlements with two direct endorsement lenders to resolve allegations of violating FHA underwriting requirements. Golden First Mortgage Corp. and Group One Mortgage agreed to pay a total of $36.41 million to the federal government in reparation for losses incurred by the FHA on the defaulted loans. Based in Great Neck, NY, Golden First, a privately held company, and its owner/president, David Movtady, allegedly falsely certified to FHA and HUD that the loans the company endorsed for insurance met all FHA requirements. This went on from 2002 through 2010, the OIG alleged. The OIG accused the company and Movtady of violating the False Claims Act, which prohibits acts to defraud the federal government and which has been instrumental in ...

The Department of Veterans Affairs is updating its residual-income tables, with an eye to publishing revised guidelines in 2016. The last time the VA calculated and published the residual-income guidelines was in the 1990s, and a lot has changed since then, according to Mike Frueh, director of the VA Home Loan Guaranty program. Residual income is the monthly household income that remains after all primary obligations – mortgage and escrows, car payments, credit card bills, student loans, among others – have been paid. VA will not back a loan to a vet or service member if they do not meet or exceed residual-income requirements. The residual-income threshold varies by family size, borrower location and other compensating factors. Calculations for residual income vary for the Northwest Region, Midwest Region, South Region and West Region of the country. Frueh said they are ...

Beginning June 27, the FHA will require electronic appraisals for single-family forward and reverse mortgages to be delivered through an online electronic submission portal prior to endorsement. The Electronic Appraisal Delivery (EAD) portal is a web-based platform that would allow paperless submissions of single-family home loan appraisals, cutting down loan processing time significantly. FHA lenders and their authorized representatives can access the EAD portal by using electronic credentials and showing they are ready to use the new technology. Only appraisals that are compliant with FHA appraisal and data delivery guidelines can be uploaded to the portal. Lenders will be notified of a successful upload or if they need to correct and resubmit an appraisal. Once an appraisal is successfully submitted to the portal, FHA Connection will pull EAD appraisal data and pre-fill certain data fields in the ...