Vantage Production LLC is trying to build compliance, suitability and accountability into the mortgage sales process – things that can help lenders comply with the daunting qualified-mortgage rule as they streamline their sales and marketing processes. The vendor says its Vantage Integrated Production (VIP), an enterprise-level customer-relationship management platform, enhances loan-officer productivity and increases sales while providing corporate control of compliance. This software-as-a-service ...

Mortgage professionals who work the M&A trade contend that interest in residential finance is not waning in the least, but potential buyers are being a bit more choosey these days.

Can Ellie Mae get a deal done with residential originations expected to slow in 2014?

Spencer Stuart, a search firm working for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has talked to a top official at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau about being the CEO of the fledgling Common Securitization Solutions platform project, Inside The GSEs has learned. The candidate for the CEO job is Peter Carroll, who currently serves as assistant director for mortgage markets at the CFPB.

A number of lenders report that they will record their interactions with borrowers – even face-to-face meetings – in an effort to avoid liability under qualified mortgage requirements, according to Standard & Poor’s. Lenders suggest that they are largely in compliance with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability-to-repay rule, which establishes QM requirements on Jan. 10, but documentation is key. Borrowers that go into default can seek to prove that lenders didn’t meet the ATR requirements, even if ...

BOK Financial is jumping into the online mortgage origination channel with the launch of HomeDirect Mortgage to serve consumers who are increasingly going to the Internet to shop for mortgages. The Tulsa-based company said the new channel complements BOK’s mortgage operation, which originated an estimated $4 billion in loans through its retail channel in 2012. As a “direct” lender with an automated online application system, HomeDirect is aiming for homebuyers who are computer savvy and searching ...

Two surviving spouses of deceased reverse mortgage borrowers won their case against the Department of Housing and Urban Development after a U.S. court found HUD in violation of federal law for failing to protect the spouses from foreclosure. The court’s decision marks a turning point for surviving spouses, such as Robert Bennett of Annapolis, MD, and Leila Joseph of Brooklyn, NY, and ensures that they will be protected against eviction and foreclosure, despite the loss of their husband or wife, said Jean Constantine-Davis, a senior attorney with the AARP Foundation Litigation. In March 2011, the AARP and the law firm of Mehri & Skalet of Washington, DC, filed ...

The Appraisal Foundation suggested this week that “alternative valuation products” likely will not comply with professional appraisal standards in most cases. If an AVP requires the same development and reporting requirements as an appraisal, the Appraisal Foundation said in a white paper, why would the industry create the AVP in the first place? The foundation noted that the Appraisal Standards Board does not deem any alternative valuation product or form as compliant with the industry’s ...

As usual, the Federal Housing Finance Agency provided as little detail as possible in its new disclosures on the common securitization platform.

Citadel Servicing CEO Dan Perl said "the phones are ringing like a son-of-a-gun" at his nonprime lending shop.