Fannie Mae recently updated its loan production estimates. The GSE projects $1.78 trillion in originations this year and $1.55 trillion next year.

Nonprime lender Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions is now offering a “no-income” loan to investors with credit scores as low as 660...

Lenders operating in the consumer-direct channel have a distinct opportunity to use technology to improve the mortgage experience for borrowers, according to findings from the Strategic Mortgage Finance Group. Garth Graham, a senior partner at the firm more commonly referred to as Stratmor, detailed the findings in a new publication from the mortgage-industry consulting firm. The Stratmor executive suggested that consumer-direct lenders should work with technology that ...

Former New Jersey politician John Leadbeater worked out a plea arrangement with prosecutors.

The eventual goal of the project is to have the GSEs issue fully interchangeable securities.

Verizon Wireless is preparing to package the payment plans on more than 3.09 million cell phones into an ABS, marking the first time an ABS in the U.S. will be backed by such collateral. The planned $1.17 billion Verizon Owner Trust 2016-1 received preliminary AAA ratings from Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s. “It’s the most interesting type of consumer ABS product we’ve seen in a long time,” said Darrell Wheeler, head of research for global structured finance at S&P. “And obviously, with the amount of phones in the market today, it has a lot of potential.” Analysts at Moody’s Investors Service noted...

More rigorous regulatory requirements and the resulting compliance efforts on the part of mortgage lenders might be increasing workloads and biting into profit levels, but they are also producing higher quality loans, which should pay off in lower losses and less litigation, according to one industry economist. “Better technology and standards in the loan application process combined with more time spent underwriting each loan application may be increasing the cost of ...

The mortgage lenders that will thrive in the future will be those that lead the market’s charge toward “frictionless” originations, according to a recent white paper from Oracle Financial Services, a division of the global technology provider. The key for lenders is to re-invent their processes and adopt digital-based customer-centric originations in order to improve efficiency, reduce cost and enhance the borrower experience.“The correlation between process and profitability is ...

Some lenders are generating extra revenue by providing a valuable service to real estate agents: providing leads on potential homebuyers. Real estate agents report mixed feelings about the services offered by Quicken Loans and others, according to a recent survey conducted by Campbell Surveys and sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance. Interactions between lenders and real estate agents typically relate to homebuyer referrals by agents to lenders. However, some lenders also sell homebuyer leads to real estate agents. “There is...

A borrower recently filed a lawsuit seeking class-action status against Fannie Mae related to an inquiry made into his credit file after his bankruptcy process was completed. Some attorneys said the case hints at a new type of lawsuit on the horizon stemming from the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Grant Bailey alleges that the government-sponsored enterprise made unauthorized inquiries into his credit after bankruptcy released him from any debt he owed to Fannie. Bailey filed documents in federal court on June 15 stating that the inquiry without his consent was not permissible under the FCRA and did not serve any legitimate business need. These allegations represent...