Meanwhile, two mid-sized lenders told Inside Mortgage Finance on Friday that they too are shuttering their Realtor-related MSAs.

But there is some good news: the new rule will ease reporting requirements for small banks and credit unions.

The performance of U.S. residential MBS keeps getting better, thanks mostly to favorable economic conditions, but the effects of greater regulatory oversight and intervention can be positive or negative, and sometimes both, depending on what hat a participant in the secondary market wears, according to experts at Moody’s Investors Service. “RMBS performance continues to improve, and that’s mainly because of the confluence of two factors: fewer borrowers are becoming delinquent for the first time because of the economy, and re-default rates on loans which have been modified – which is a significant share of the population of private-label MBS loans – continue to be stable,” said Youriy Koudinov, vice president and senior credit officer at Moody’s. “The second point we want to convey is...

Did anyone expect the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury to be hovering at just over 2.0 percent as November approached? Not really, but the recent downdraft in rates has once again caused bond prices – MBS in particular – to increase, a development warming the hearts of investors. Then again, MBS investors hedging their positions might be...

In an about face, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is preparing to allow for the use of credit ratings as a gauge for credit risk when setting bank capital requirements. If the move isn’t adopted by U.S. regulators, industry participants suggest that domestic banks could be at a disadvantage. In a speech late last week, Stefan Ingves, chairman of the BCBS, acknowledged that the Basel committee’s December 2014 proposal to revise the standardized approach for credit risk wasn’t well received. “The response was both vigorous and clear: not many of you liked the proposals,” he said. Ingves said...

Originations of purchase mortgages outpaced refinances in the jumbo market in 2014, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. Some $135.88 billion in jumbo purchase mortgages was reported under HMDA in 2014, accounting for 60.6 percent of loans that exceeded agency conforming loan limits, including those in high-cost markets. In 2013, purchase mortgages accounted ... [Includes two data charts]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a final rule this week that will significantly expand the data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. Many of the newly required data fields are aimed at giving federal regulators better information regarding discriminatory lending practices. The reporting requirements will start to take effect at the beginning of 2018. Among the new fields required to be reported under HMDA are credit scores, debt-to-income ratios ...

A spokesman for Stonegate Mortgage confirmed that Bolstad is no longer with the lender/servicer, but had little else to say on the matter.

Rep. Andy Barr, R-KY, used a recent hearing by the House Financial Services Committee as an opportunity to promote a bill that would grant qualified mortgage status to loans held in portfolio. He was particularly critical of an exemption in QM standards that currently applies to mortgages eligible for purchase by the government-sponsored enterprises. Such loans can have debt-to-income ratios above 43 percent and still be deemed safe-harbor QMs. “The policy is counterproductive ...

Some observers say the reduction in the annual mortgage insurance premium earlier this year has put the FHA Single Family Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund on an accelerated path to recovery. Whether that is enough to get the fund back to its statutory 2 percent capital reserve ratio remains to be seen. The FHA is getting stronger faster, said Brian Chappelle, a mortgage industry consultant, in an analysis foreshadowing the FHA’s November actuarial report on the state of the MMIF. Last year’s independent actuary projected FHA’s total loan production in 2015 at $124 billion, but the MIP cut has led to a 60 percent increase in the volume forecast, said Chappelle. In all likelihood, the FHA could be looking at more than $200 billion in total originations this year, he predicted. “When a business lowers its prices, it’s going to make it up in volume,” the consultant noted. “Thus, FHA revenue is going to be ...