Even though the wholesale/broker channel is a shadow of its former self in terms of market share, that isn’t stopping LoanDepot of Irvine, CA, from sticking its toe in the water. In fact, the company acknowledged the problems the sector faces when it announced to the world two weeks ago that it was entering the space. “There is no segment in the mortgage industry facing greater challenges today than mortgage brokers,” said Jeff Walsh, president of LDWholesale, the unit LoanDepot ...

The increased incidence of occupancy fraud by borrowers in 2013 poses risks for lenders, but the industry also needs to be aware that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is on the lookout for lenders that facilitate occupancy fraud as a way to avoid the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule. Occupancy fraud risk increased by 24 percent in 2013, according to Interthinx, a firm that provides fraud prevention services. “In previous years, when refinances dominated the market, we saw higher ...

Correspondent mortgage originators accounted for a little over a third of the single-family mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae during the first quarter of 2014, but they are an unusually rich source of the industry’s most prized commodity, according to a new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. Some 68.7 percent of correspondent-originated loans were purchase-money mortgages, the highest such ratio for ... [Includes one data chart]

The Department of Housing and Urban Development will soon seek comment on a proposal to extend equal protection to reverse mortgage borrowers and their non-borrowing spouses from displacement due to eviction or foreclosure. The proposed rule would codify the changes to existing Home Equity Conversion Mortgage regulations and make other alternative revisions as appropriate, according to HUD. The FHA expects to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking soon. Currently, the National Housing Act provides for a “safeguard to prevent displacement of the homeowner.” The provision defers repayment of the HECM until the homeowner’s death, the sale of the home, or the occurrence of other events specified in the regulations. Such events include the homeowner’s failure to reside in the property or failure to pay the required taxes and insurance. Without this provision, a reverse mortgage is ...

The House Appropriations Committee this week approved the FY 2015 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development funding bill, which, among other, things contains a provision prohibiting federal housing agencies from facilitating the use of eminent domain in resolving foreclosure problems. Specifically, the FHA, Ginnie Mae and the Department of Housing and Urban Development would not be allowed to use funds appropriated by Congress to “insure, securitize or establish a federal guarantee” of any mortgage or mortgage-backed security that refinances or replaces a mortgage that has been subject to eminent domain condemnation or seizure by a state, municipality or any other political subdivision of a state. In addition, the bill would prohibit the use of appropriated funds or any receipts or amounts collected under any FHA program to implement the FHA’s new Homeowners Armed with Knowledge (HAWK) program. HUD has proposed to ...

Issuance of mortgage bonds with a Ginnie Mae guarantee fell during the first three months of 2013 as higher FHA costs and all-cash home sales appeared to drive the decline, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of agency data. Ginnie Mae issuers closed the first quarter with MBS issuances totaling $58.2 billion, down 19.0 percent from the fourth quarter of 2013. The drop was steeper on a year-over-year basis, 41.3 percent, data showed. FHA accounted for $30.6 billion of government-backed mortgage securities issued during the period, while VA and Rural Housing Development (Department of Agriculture) accounted for $19.1 billion and $4.1 billion, respectively. Top Ginnie Mae issuer Wells Fargo closed out the first quarter with $12.5 billion, down 28.1 percent from the previous quarter and off 59.9 percent from the same period a year ago. Wells’ volume accounted for ... [1 chart]

Servicers of mortgage debt issued by Ginnie Mae reported a slight uptick in government-backed debt outstanding in the first quarter of 2014 though not enough to cause a ripple in a market that has been generally flat since the end of the third quarter last year, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of Ginnie Mae data. Ginnie Mae servicers reported an increase of 0.9 percent in servicing volume from the fourth quarter of 2013 following a 0.2 percent decline in the prior quarter. Volume, however, increased 7.3 percent in 1Q14 compared with volume a year ago. Servicers ended the first quarter with a total of $1.44 trillion in Ginnie Mae mortgage servicing, up from $1.43 trillion in the fourth quarter. Major banks comprised four of the top five Ginnie Mae servicers. Wells Fargo’s overall servicing portfolio declined to $426.7 billion in the first quarter, down ... [ 1 chart]

A nonprofit organization that assists a government agency in providing secondary financing through FHA does not need approval by the Department of Housing and Urban Development or placement on the agency’s roster of approved nonprofits that meet certain requirements. According to Mortgagee Letter 2014-08, to qualify for the exclusion, the nonprofit’s functions must be limited to the government entity’s secondary financing program as well as to the note and deed of trust, which name the government agency as the mortgagee. Currently, HUD requires nonprofits to be HUD-approved and listed on the agency’s roster of nonprofit organizations before engaging in secondary financing for closing costs, prepaids and downpayment assistance on behalf of the government entity. In a mortgagee letter last year, HUD acknowledged that some government entities could not legally or operationally ensure that they are “making” second mortgages. As a result, the agency allowed ...

Although the pace of blockbuster servicing deals appears to have slowed, the giants of the mortgage-servicing business continued to leak market share in early 2014. Significantly, there is now just one lender with more than $1 trillion in mortgage servicing. Back in the third quarter of 2005, Countrywide Financial became the first company to amass over $1 trillion in mortgage servicing, and Wells Fargo joined the club by the end of that year. Chase Home Finance became a $1 trillion servicer in the fourth quarter of 2008, shortly after Bank of America took over Countrywide and became the first $2 trillion servicer. But BofA dumped...[Includes two data charts]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together earned $9.3 billion in the first quarter, thanks largely to big settlements of lawsuits over non-agency mortgage-backed securities. Together, the two government-sponsored enterprises will have paid about $213.1 billion to the Treasury at the end of June, roughly $25.1 billion more than the $188 billion the two companies have drawn from the Treasury since being placed in government conservatorship. Freddie earned...