Many borrowers could have seen significant savings on the interest rate on a mortgage if they shopped around, according to a working paper published by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Research. The bureau economists noted that close to half of consumers didn’t shop before taking out a mortgage, based on the National Survey of Mortgage Originations, a representative survey conducted by the CFPB and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. And only 16.0 percent of borrowers considered three or more lenders before obtaining a mortgage. The economists said...

Most of the discussion about lender relief from the compliance burdens under the Dodd-Frank Act has revolved around the Financial CHOICE Act sponsored by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX. But the wheels are starting to move in the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, where Chairman Mike Crapo, R-ID, has begun receiving input from industry trade groups about the kind of changes they would like to see. The lion’s share of the industry’s concerns have to do with the mortgage rules promulgated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, whether it’s the integrated disclosure rule, the ability-to-repay rule or the penchant the bureau seems to have for bypassing the public rulemaking process through the use of consent orders. The Mortgage Bankers Association urged...

We understand that some surprising names are beginning to show up at auctions for nonprime, non-agency whole loans...

The largest civil money penalty imposed by the board was $604,000 as part of a settlement with Ocwen Loan Servicing...

Moody’s believes servicing acquisitions by Ocwen will be limited by franchise uncertainty, capital constraints and a highly competitive market…

John Getchis, senior vice president at Ginnie Mae, said he does not think the churning trend will continue…

“The CFPB’s use of consent decrees and administrative decisions to make changes in the rules, rather than formal rulemaking or published guidance, has created uncertainty in the market and higher costs for consumers,” the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

At the end of 2016, the CFPB had a number of pending investigations in the fair lending area, but the regulator offered no other details.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau referred eight matters to the Department of Justice last year, claiming it found discrimination in credit transactions.

Private capital needs to return to the mortgage market to make the market less dependent on taxpayers, according to JPMorgan Chase. The company dedicated portions of its latest annual report to call for a number of changes that could increase non-agency lending. According to Chase, a “healthy” non-agency mortgage-backed security market hasn’t resumed eight years after the financial crisis because housing finance reform and other securitization standards ...