So much has been said in recent days about a possible yet cautious return to subprime mortgage lending as lenders lowered their credit-score requirements for FHA mortgages and other agency loans with certain limitations. Industry participants, however, say today’s “subprime” is a misnomer and certainly not the same toxic subprime mortgage product that pushed the U.S. financial system to the brink of collapse. Lenders are more cautious in the post-subprime era and they no longer practice risk layering on loans to borrowers with less-than-stellar credit histories as they did in the past, industry observers say. “In the past, lenders combined risk layering with low credit scores,” said Brian Chappelle, a mortgage industry consultant. “Today, I would be shocked if any lender used Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or the FHA as a vehicle for traditional subprime because they would be ignoring the possibility of repurchase or indemnification.” Lenders today are...

Some of the largest servicers could be violating fair-lending laws, according to an analysis by a the Government Accountability Office, while an alphabet soup of federal regulators overseeing fair lending issues appears to be treating servicing concerns like a hot potato. In a report issued late last week, the GAO said its analysis of loan-level data for the four largest servicers participating in the Home Affordable Modification Program suggests that there are fair-lending concerns that merit further examination. While the GAO didn’t identify the servicers, the four largest HAMP servicers are Ocwen Loan Servicing, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, according to the Treasury. The GAO found...

Two nonbanks among the top five servicers now control almost 9 percent of the residential receivables market. Should regulators be worried? Should the MBA?

One area on the bureau’s short list is compliance under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.

Public mention of the Treasury memo was first made earlier this month by former Solicitor General Ted Olson at a GSE shareholders rights advocacy forum in Washington.

Two Harbors said FHLB membership provides up to $1 billion of uncommitted credit for borrowings.

Despite the slowdown, an estimated 630,000 mortgages were guaranteed by VA in FY 2013 – a record. Wells Fargo was the top VA funder with $14.82 billion. USAA was second.

Mortgage companies with back-office operations overseas don't have to worry about the CFPB examining their off-shore staff, at least not anytime soon.

Just when mortgage lenders thought it was safe to go back in the water, the CFPB revealed a big shark fin earlier this month by indicating it intends to develop additional reporting requirements under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. “As Congress required in the Dodd-Frank Act, we are considering proposing rules that would make changes in how financial institutions report their mortgage activity,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said. “One of the main purposes of this effort is to gain greater insight into issues about access to credit.”...

As part of the CFPB’s new push for additional reporting requirements under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, the bureau, in conjunction with the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, has released a new, fairly robust online tool to enable interested parties to explore mortgage data in ways previously unavailable. “Users now have more flexibility in how they sift through the data. They can filter it, download it, create summary tables, and share the results,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “The tool uses a format that is...