Approximately a third of independent mortgage bankers that had not previously made home loans to borrowers with credit scores under 600 began to do so during the fourth quarter of 2013 as mortgage production volumes declined, according to a Richey May & Co. quarterly trend report. Richey May, a provider of accounting and business advisory services and technology to the mortgage industry, based its report on last year’s lending activities by 29 independent mortgage banking firms ...

Officials at TD Bank project that the lender will be able to weather the downturn in originations better than most because of its diversified product offerings – including portfolio mortgages – and an emphasis on cross-selling products. Mike Pedersen, president and CEO of TD Bank, said the bank’s goal is to continue to outpace the market in terms of originations. “We still believe we’ll outgrow the market, and that’s because we are underpenetrated against our customer base ...

The mortgage originations market is still, by and large, a banker’s game, but nonbank lenders are continuing to muscle up their share of new production, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. During the first quarter of 2014, nonbank lenders accounted for 37.7 percent of originations made by a large sample of lenders that covered more than three quarters of the total production during the period. That was up from a 35.5 percent nonbank share in the fourth quarter of 2013 and a 26.0 percent nonbank share back in the first three months of last year. The nonbank share of originations is...

The New York Department of Financial Services expanded its investigation of nonbank servicers, raising concerns about sales of real estate owned properties for Ocwen Financial by Altisource Portfolio Solutions, an affiliate of the nonbank servicer. Officials at Altisource downplayed the concerns late last week and said the company plans to continue to grow with Ocwen. In February, NYDFS Superintendent Ben Lawsky put on indefinite hold a planned servicing transfer from Wells Fargo to Ocwen on mostly non-agency mortgages with an unpaid principal balance of $39.2 billion. Lawsky has sent a number of questions to Ocwen as well as Nationstar Mortgage based on concerns that the nonbank servicers were growing too quickly. Officials at Ocwen note...

A number of lenders have loosened their underwriting standards on non-agency products in recent months in an effort to boost originations as demand for refinances plummets. One of the boldest moves was taken by TD Bank, which this week announced a portfolio loan that has a downpayment requirement as low as 3 percent. The loan is part of the lender’s Right Step mortgage program which features low downpayment loans without private mortgage insurance ...

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said this week that housing finance reform can no longer be put off, but no more so than for the FHA which continues to play an “outsized role” in the mortgage market as private capital remains on the sidelines. Speaking in New York at an event co-hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center, Donovan said the Obama administration is squarely behind the legislative proposal by Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-ID. “Despite its imperfections, does this bill represent progress? Absolutely,” said Donovan, seeking to win over housing advocacy groups disenchanted with the bill. “When looking for ways to improve [the bill], let’s not lose sight of its potential. Let’s not forget its importance to the housing market and its future.” The Johnson-Crapo legislative proposal calls for a wind-down of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and creation of a ...

Home Loan Servicing Solutions recently completed its first acquisition of Ginnie Mae whole loans through the agency’s early buy-out (EBO) program. The purchase price for the FHA-insured loans was $556.6 million. HLSS acquired the loans from Ocwen with an unpaid principal balance (UPB) of $549.4 million. Ocwen initially acquired the loans through the GNMA EBO program, which allows Ginnie Mae servicers to purchase delinquent loans from applicable loan securitization pools. HLSS financed its purchase by opening a new $600 million mortgage loan facility. It received $472.7 million in proceeds from this facility to help fund its EBO loan purchase from Ocwen. The loans are held as investments in a special purpose entity (SPE). “It is our expectation that since our GNMA EBO loans are insured by the FHA, the cash flows of this SPE will be sufficient to meet all claims of the debt holders,” the company said ...

Mortgage-banking income at nine major banks declined by 27.7 percent in the first quarter of 2014 compared with the previous quarter, according to an analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. The declines were driven by a lack of refinance volume, changes in valuations on mortgage servicing rights and litigation costs. “Despite a relatively favorable interest-rate environment, the market got off to a slow start in 2014,” said Marianne Lake, CFO at JPMorgan Chase, during the bank’s ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did significantly less business during the first quarter of 2014 along just about every metric you can think of, but the two government-sponsored enterprises saw out-sized declines from their biggest customers. The top five GSE sellers accounted for just 33.3 percent of single-family mortgage deliveries during the first quarter of this year, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of ... [Includes two data charts]

A new report by Fannie Mae finds that second-home mortgage market activity is in the midst of a strong rebound, representing a small yet significant corner of the mortgage market. Fannie’s report – Second Homes: Recovery Post Financial Crisis – noted that the uneven economic recovery has a benefit to the second-home buyer, who tends to be older, earns more and consequently has the means to make a larger downpayment ... [Includes one data chart]