A direct-endorsement (DE) lender in Arizona is on the hook for 789 FHA-insured loans with unallowable “gifts,” placing the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund at greater risk and causing the FHA to incur losses. Phoenix-based The Lending Company, Inc. (TLC) allegedly entered into agreements with two nonprofit groups, Family Housing Resources and Affordable Housing Partners, using gift programs that did not comply with FHA requirements, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General. The IG audit also found that TLC originated and underwrote FHA loans and did not ...

Many of the lenders with high default rates are smaller companies while those with larger portfolios tend to perform better than the national average, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of compare ratios on two-year FHA loan portfolios. The compare ratio is the percentage of a lender’s default and claim rate compared to the national average. It is shown as a numerical value, which HUD uses to determine lender performance. A compare ratio of over 150 percent will land a lender on HUD’s watch list and a ratio greater than 200 percent could result ... [1 chart]

Commercial banks and savings institutions continued to generate solid earnings on their mortgage banking activity during the second quarter of 2013, according to a new call report analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. Banks and thrifts reported $8.164 billion in mortgage banking income during the second quarter, a 6.0 percent increase from the first three months of the year. It was, in fact, the second best quarterly earnings for the industry since the bank call report was amended in ... [Includes two data charts]

Tommy Adkins, director of loan production for Florida Capital Bank Mortgage, has some advice for lenders fearing a tumultuous slowdown in refinancings: cut overhead now and don’t look back. Unfortunately for rank-and-file mortgage workers, cutting overhead means jobs. When Wells Fargo recently announced that it was eliminating 2,300 jobs in its mortgage department, it provided few details on what type of workers were let go except to say most were in fulfillment and processing. A Wells spokesman ...

Federal regulators this week re-proposed risk-retention requirements with an option to align the definition of qualified residential mortgages with the definition of qualified mortgages. The regulators said the alignment will help increase mortgage availability and reduce compliance costs. “The agencies are concerned about the prospect of imposing further constraints on mortgage credit availability at this time, especially as such constraints might disproportionately affect groups that have ...

The spike in interest rates in recent months didn’t cause a significant change in homebuyer behavior, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. The non-cash share of purchase-financing continued to increase in July and sales-to-list price ratios remained elevated, indicating strong demand from homebuyers relying on mortgage financing. Non-cash financing (conventional mortgages, FHA and VA, non-agency, etc.) accounted for 72.1 percent of ...

Originations of non-agency jumbo mortgages continued to increase in the second quarter of 2013, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The growth was fueled by banks offering highly competitive interest rates in an effort to retain jumbos in portfolio. Wells Fargo was the top-ranked jumbo lender through two quarters in 2013, by a wide margin. The lender had $21.87 billion in jumbo originations in the first half of 2013, accounting for 19.4 percent of ... [Includes one data chart]

With credit standards loosening somewhat, some commercial banks are listening to pitches from “private-money” lenders that are searching for warehouse lines, but so far it’s been a case of more smoke than fire. During the subprime meltdown of 2007, banks and Wall Street firms exited the nonprime warehouse sector and have yet to return. According to warehouse consultant Michele Perrin, several banks are willing to make warehouse lines on private-money mortgages, but only up to $5 million per deal ...

FHA lenders have gradually stretched to originate loans for borrowers with more modest credit scores in recent quarters, although these borrowers typically are better positioned to keep up with their payments, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis of data released by the agency. The average credit score for single-family loans endorsed in the second quarter of 2013 was 693 – the lowest such average in nearly four years. This is partly the result of a shift toward more purchase-money mortgages, which generally have ... [1 chart]

Parties to trustee lawsuits challenging a city’s use of eminent domain to deal with foreclosures are gearing up for a face-off at an injunction hearing Sept. 13 in federal district court in San Francisco. The city of Richmond, CA, the defendant in the lawsuit, has suffered setbacks in the last few days and has yet to make good on its threat to initiate eminent domain proceedings after investor trustees rejected its offer to purchase distressed mortgages for restructuring. Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank, acting as trustees for a group of ...