In response to the CFPB’s request for information on adopted rules, industry groups especially want the bureau to make some changes to the qualified mortgage standards under the ability-to-repay rule, including making the “GSE patch” permanent. The ATR rule generally requires a maximum debt-to-income ratio of 43 percent in order to get QM status. Special rules apply to agency mortgages, however, including a temporary provision that loans eligible for sale to the ...
The CFPB has issued a report on end-of- year credit card borrowing and repayment of credit card balances in the following year. The report found the year-end rise in consumer debt was most pronounced in general purpose credit card debt and retail store card debt. Delinquency rates on credit cards rise during and after the holiday season, driven by consumers with subprime credit scores, the report said [Includes one brief] ...
The Treasury Department wants to reduce the GSEs’ footprint in the mortgage market, according to Treasury Counselor Craig Phillips. He also reiterated, about a week before the administration formally published its thoughts on reform (see story page 3), that ultimately the goal is to take Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac out of conservatorship. He said that at 70 percent the federal share of housing is clearly far too high. The Treasury official spoke at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch mortgage and housing finance conference in New York last week that was closed to the press. BAML provided a report on his remarks.
As the Federal Reserve slowly unwinds its agency MBS holdings, economists forecast there are more disposals to come and without much market disruption.
Defaults remain low on student loan refinancing originated by online lenders due to the overall high quality of their borrowers, and some new repayment assistance programs will help the strong performance, said Moody’s Investors Service.
Merrill Lynch has agreed to pay more than $15 million to resolve allegations that its traders misled investors into overpaying for residential MBS. In other legal stories, a monoline insurer sued a trustee over the settlement amount in an RMBS repurchase case while another group of MBS trustees defeated a class-certification motion in California state court.
One former loanDepot official had this to say about the rumor: “It makes sense. loanDepot has plenty of loan officers handling inbound leads. Amazon could create a ton more and compete with Quicken….”