The Mortgage Bankers Association is on a mission to convince banking regulators to revisit the Basel III capital standards and to change the cap on how much mortgage servicing rights can count toward Tier I capital. The way things stand now, MSRs will be capped at 10 percent of capital when the rule is fully phased in, with the excess deducted from a depository’s “common equity.” Previously, the cap was 100 percent. In a draft letter to the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the MBA argues...

The U.S. Supreme Court gets another crack at deciding whether plaintiffs can bring a disparate-impact lawsuit under the Fair Housing Act (and by extension, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act), a question that has divided courts, lenders and consumer advocacy groups for years. The court’s partial grant of the petition in the Texas case would be its third opportunity in two years to rule on the controversial question. Two prior cases raising that issue, Township of Mount Holly v. Mt. Holly Gardens Citizen Action, Inc. and Magner v. Gallagher, were both settled before oral argument could be presented before the court. SCOTUS has agreed...

Mortgage underwriting standards are relaxing somewhat, according to a new analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance, particularly as production has shifted from a focus on refinances to purchase mortgages. However, underwriting standards are much more stringent than they were before the financial crisis, with few options available for nonprime borrowers. The average credit score on purchase mortgages included...

Another refi boomlet? One Long Island-based mortgage executive told us this: “Locks doubled from the day before and are up 30 percent over the previous 10 days”…

Ethos Lending, a QM and non-QM lender, is marketing itself to third-party loan officers as the “broker advocate."

New York Law School professor Richard Epstein took issue with Judge Lamberth’s ruling that HERA doesn’t take away any “cognizable property rights.”

Is it that the FHFA doesn't want to take a stand on g-fees because it fears alienating the industry?

More clarity on the matter is expected later this month when Ginnie is set to release new guidance at the annual convention of the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives just wage slaves? And is there something wrong with that?

The watchdog arm of Congress noted that the Treasury hasn’t implemented 6 out of 24 recommendations relating to housing programs funded by the Troubled Asset Relief Program.