One trade group official told Inside Mortgage Finance that despite efforts by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to create g-fee parity for lenders of different sizes, there has been little in the way of progress.

Are mortgage bankers so diabolical that they attempt to find a way around new regulations? Industry consultant Joe Garrett of Garrett, McAuley & Co. thinks so.

Consumer advocate Mike Calhoun questioned if lenders will offer non-QMs at all, due to the liability posed by such originations and their designation as “less safe” mortgages.

While the report doesn’t mention FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco by name, it's a clear repudiation of his stewardship of the agency.

Paul Rozo, who runs PRMG, told us that he is not a big fan of call centers and that every LO in his organization is a “hunter,” a sales person “who relies on referral business and/or handling their own marketing."

Many mortgage originators and aggregators say they would use some form of recording, either audio or audio/video, to help with QM compliance and fighting potential lawsuits.

In its successful civil suit against Bank of America, DOJ estimated that the two GSEs lost $850 million from thousands of loans acquired through Countrywide's “Hustle” program.

According to Alice Alvey of Indecomm Mortgage U, “many shops are reassessing originator comp plans for January 2014 to adjust to the changing margins and seize the opportunity to blame it on the change in the law."

The non-agency mortgage market is expected to take the brunt of the changes prompted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new ability-to-repay rule and requirements for qualified mortgages. However, two months before the rule takes effect, the rating services haven’t released guidelines for how non-QMs will be rated, prompting issuers to be cautious with plans for non-QMs. Kroll Bond Rating Agency was the only rating service to offer details to Inside MBS & ABS in response to questions about ratings for non-agency MBS once the QM requirements take effect. Glenn Costello, a senior managing director at KBRA, said the securitization of non-QM loans will require additional credit enhancement relative to QMs. DBRS and Standard & Poor’s declined...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has picked two “final” candidates to be CEO of the joint venture developing a common securitization platform for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and, potentially, some non-agency MBS issuers. According to industry officials close to the matter, Peter Carroll is one of the candidates to head Common Securitization Solutions, the name of the entity developing the platform. Carroll is currently the assistant director for mortgage markets at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The identity of the other candidate could not be confirmed...