The roiling mortgage lending marketplace continues to present some lenders with even more challenges that force the adoption of coping strategies to cut their losses, while opening up fresh opportunities for others to deploy the next phase in their long-term strategic plans. loanDepot.com, based in Foothill Ranch, CA, the latest start-up by the founders of E*TRADE Mortgage and LendingTree Loans, falls into the latter category, recently launching its new national expansion plan with the opening of a new origination center in Franklin, TN, just outside of Nashville. Company President Tomo Yebisu said Franklin was chosen because of...

Default technology provider Commerce Velocity, based in Irvine, CA, recently upgraded its Optimizer solution to help servicer clients achieve the new requirements for Fannie Mae’s Quality Right Party Contact initiative. The original version of Optimizer enabled servicers to maximize cash flows from delinquencies, and enforce workout consistency throughout the default management process. By applying net present value calculations, cash flow projections, valuation models, and comprehensive workout guidelines, the technology provides “the most intelligent outcomes possible,” the company said. The Optimal Outcome module monitors...

Some federally regulated depository institutions are scrambling to meet a July 29 deadline to register with the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry to avoid possible sanctions by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Although the covered institutions have begun registering their mortgage loan originators as required by the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act, there is some confusion about other employees whose mortgage-related responsibilities are not as clear cut as those of MLOs, said compliance experts. Such employees include those who ...

It’s been one year since the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has been enacted, and industry representatives remain anxious about the negative effects they expect the legislation will have on the mortgage market and the cost and availability of mortgage credit. Coming up with any new mortgage products at all will be one of the numerous challenges posed by Dodd-Frank, thanks in particular to the burdensome, 5 percent risk-retention requirement, according to Larry Platt, a partner with law firm K&L Gates in Washington, DC. “Under the Dodd-Frank risk-retention requirement, there’s ...

Loan servicers must deal with increasing paperwork and time demands, and they are often unequipped for new reporting requirements resulting from the Dodd-Frank Act. Firms such as SourceHOV say they can provide servicers with a strategy for dealing with the additional work new regulations are creating. One of the more onerous requirements is the need to handle qualified written requests. Servicers are also required to acknowledge receipt of any request. “Servicers really have two options when it comes to compliance,” said Michael Zwall, the director of mortgage services for SourceHOV, a consulting firm. “First, a servicer can decide to develop ...

Overlooking investor overlays in mortgage loan underwriting can be quite costly and could expose lenders to regulatory risk and liability. iServe Residential Lending, a retail mortgage banker in San Diego, believes it has found the ultimate solution to its underwriting problems, especially with regards to investor overlays, including FHA, VA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. iServe, which originates conventional, government and jumbo loans, recently implemented PriceMyLoan, an automated underwriting and loan pricing tool from Insight Lending Solutions, the same folks who created TOTAL Scorecard for FHA. “PriceMyLoan is the only system that...

Financial institutions could save up to an estimated $1 billion a year if a proposal on global identification codes in the financial supply chain is implemented, according to a non-profit specializing in barcode technology. Infrastructure costs could be eliminated through an automated system, said Allan Grody, founder of Financial InterGroup. All financial information originates with physical documents, he said, and then they’re shipped off to intermediary companies where specialized staff interpret the documents. This process is the same for security offerings, swaps and ...

People get discouraged from taking mortgage loan modifications that are in their best interest by countless paperwork steps and little support from servicers, according to a Harvard University behavioral economist who says he has a solution. Piyush Tantia, the executive director of ideas42, a nonprofit behavioral economics research and development lab at Harvard, has been experimenting with how people respond to foreclosure. Behavioral economics blends psychology and economics to analyze and predict decisions based on how people actually behave. Tantia found that people often did not ...

Tradeweb claims its Round Robin functionality has curbed trade failures in the to be announced mortgage market to the tune of $166 billion since it was introduced in November. First, the service has reduced the “round robin” risk; that is, the risk associated with a chain of matched fails that frequently becomes a closed loop. The new technology enables institutional clients to pair-off TBA mortgage pool transactions with dealers, which reduces...

Ginnie Mae has agreed to issuer requests for changes regarding the collection and reporting of new pool data to provide clearer and more transparent information to investors. The changes were announced during a webinar with program participants in connection with eight new data elements on all single-family forward mortgages, which issuers are required to provide on all submissions beginning Sept. 1. Ginnie Mae announced the new requirements in APM 11-05, along with a new file layout that would accommodate the new data elements. The new data fields will show the following: combined loan-to-value ratio percent; total debt expense ratio...