In aggregate, banks and thrifts earned $3.72 billion from mortgage banking activities during 2Q17…

The CFPB and the other members of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council last week issued new examiner transaction testing guidelines for all financial institutions that report under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. The rules will apply to the examination of HMDA data collected starting in 2018 and reported beginning in 2019. The guidelines eliminate the file-error resubmission threshold under which a financial institution would have to correct and resubmit its entire Loan Application Register (LAR) if the total number of sample files with at least one error reached or exceeded a certain threshold, the bureau said. They also establish allowable tolerances for certain data fields for the purpose of counting errors toward the field-error resubmission threshold.Additionally, they provide ...

There may be plenty of uncertainty about the direction of the CFPB these days, given that Republicans are calling the shots on Capitol Hill and at the White House, plus the fact that Richard Cordray’s days as director of the bureau are numbered, regardless of when he actually ends up departing. Still, mortgage servicers can continue to expect robust supervision and regulation – and enforcement –if not from the bureau, then from another federal regulator, as well the states, and maybe all of the above, according to Steven Frie and Mark Shannon, top servicer analysts at S&P Global Ratings. “It’s been pretty common knowledge that the CFPB has been very active in regards to regulating the mortgage servicing industry,” Frie said ...

Cordray Takes to the NYT to Defend CFPB Arbitration Rule. CFPB Director Richard Cordray took to the opinion page of The New York Times last week to make a public plea in support of the CFPB’s controversial arbitration rule. Cordray cited claims by opponents of the rule that plaintiffs make out better financially by acting individually instead of acting collectively in a group lawsuit. “This claim is not supported by facts or common sense. Our study contained revealing data on the results of group lawsuits and individual actions,” he said. “We found that group lawsuits get more money back to more people. In five years of group lawsuits, we tallied an average of $220 million paid to 6.8 million consumers ...

The vast majority of Fannie buyback activity involves loans sold into MBS issued since 2015…

Pollock criticized the Treasury Department’s decision to pay off $13.5 billion of subordinate GSE debt at the start of the conservatorships nine years ago...

A spokeswoman for Fannie said, “While the situation on the ground remains uncertain, areas impacted are subject to change…”

New CIO for Freddie. Freddie Mac named Stacey Goodman as executive vice president and chief information officer. She will begin on Sept. 25 and brings more than 25 years of technology experience in the financial services industry. In her role, Goodman will lead the Information Technology division and provide corporate-wide leadership for all the company's technology activities. Previously Goodman was executive vice president, chief information and operations officer at CIT. Prior to that she held several roles at Bank of America, last serving as managing director and divisional CIO of global technology & operations. Goodman will be a member of the senior operating committee and will report directly to CEO Donald Layton.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw a modest uptick in production of single-family mortgage-backed securities in July, as 2017 activity remained slightly above last year’s levels. The two GSEs issued $71.84 billion of MBS last month, a 3.7 percent increase from June. That brought year-to-date volume to $479.77 billion, including securitization of modified loans, a slim 1.1 percent increase compared to the first seven months of 2016. The GSE market continued to shift dramatically from refinance loans to purchase mortgages. Refi loans accounted for just 33.4 percent of Fannie and Freddie business in July after ending 2016 with 55.4 percent of GSE business.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have both extended the option to skip the traditional appraisal process in lieu of automated appraisals to purchase loans. Several months ago, the GSEs announced they would offer appraisal waivers on some refinance loans to borrowers who have at least 20 percent equity in their homes. But last week, Freddie said a traditional appraisal also would not be necessary on every purchase loan. The changes take place Sept. 1. A few days later Fannie announced appraisal -free mortgages on some purchase loan applications. Both GSEs emphasize that the appraisal waivers are only permitted when there’s enough data on the property.