The recent increase in mortgage insurance premium (MIP) and other policy changes to strengthen the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund are causing borrowers with better credit to shift from FHA to conventional financing, according to a new Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. The monthly survey of real estate agents found that FHA remains an option for borrowers who have limited cash resources and tainted credit. However, given their individual circumstances and FHA’s recent policy changes, many would take out a conventional loan if they could qualify. With a low 3.5 percent downpayment requirement, FHA appears to ...
Banks with major Ginnie Mae portfolios – and even smaller firms – increased their purchases of delinquent mortgages out of MBS pools in the fourth quarter compared to the third as a way to save money and refinance troubled loans. According to an analysis by Inside FHA Lending, the top 50 Ginnie Mae issuers bought $12.65 billion of problem loans out trusts in fourth quarter compared to $11.17 billion in the third, an increase of 13 percent. “Once you buy the loan it goes into your portfolio,” said Tim Rood, a partner in The Collingwood Group, a Washington-based advisory firm. “You can try to re-perform it and then re-securitize it,” he said. Wells Fargo, the largest Ginnie Mae servicer in the nation with a portfolio of $412 billion, purchased ... [1 chart]
The reverse mortgage lending industry has asked Senate lawmakers to expand the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s authority to strengthen its oversight of the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program. Testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs recently, Peter Bell, president of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association, said it is crucial for HUD to be able to act swiftly to reduce the risk the program poses to the FHA insurance fund. Bell said HUD needs to implement changes “in a matter of months, not years” and for that to happen, it would need authority from Congress to ...
The National Association of Federal Credit Unions is urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to take another look at the usefulness of APR disclosures, among other things.
Warehouse banks that extend credit to nonbank residential lenders ended the fourth quarter with almost $40 billion in commitments on their books, their best quarter of the year, according to exclusive survey figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance. The top five warehouse banks – which control about half of the estimated total market – had $19.9 billion of commitments on their books, a 4 percent improvement from the third quarter. Compared to the end of March, commitments were up 37 percent. Wells Fargo, the largest buyer from correspondents, ranked...[Includes one data chart]
The group of regulators that established the $25 billion national servicing settlement with five servicers is in negotiations to expand the settlement’s requirements and monetary penalties to other servicers. Some servicers involved in the negotiations are willing to comply with the servicing requirements but objecting to paying any penalties. “We continue to have productive discussions with the state regulators, state attorneys general and the [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] on adopting standards similar to the national mortgage standards adopted by the big banks,” Ronald Faris, president and CEO of Ocwen Financial, said last week during the company’s earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2012. “Ocwen Loan Servicing and other servicers have also been asked...
When a lender like Wells Fargo – the top lender and servicer in the industry – describes a lengthy list of “pain points” in the new loan originator compensation rule issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, it’s fair to conclude the rule presents a huge challenge for mere mortals. During an Inside Mortgage Finance webinar last week on the bureau’s final rule, Amy Thoreson Long, senior counsel in the consumer lending division of Wells’ law department in Minneapolis, started with one of the most visceral issues for lenders: the human impact. “One of the big key things here is...
The Mortgage Bankers Association urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to give all FHA loans a “conclusive presumption of compliance” with qualified mortgage requirements and to revise the QM annual percentage rate/average prime offer rate (APR/APOR) threshold for FHA loans at least until the agency issues its own QM rule. Failure to make the adjustments could severely restrict the availability of FHA loans to lower-income first-time homebuyers, which is the FHA’s traditional market, the trade group said. In comments on the CFPB’s final ability-to-repay rule, the MBA said...
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