According to figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance, Flagstar is the nation’s second largest wholesale/broker lender. It also has a fairly large presence in the warehouse market.

Now that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has delivered its integrated mortgage disclosure project, the agency is asking consumers to identify the key “pain points” associated with closing and how they might by mitigated by market innovations and technology. “The CFPB seeks to encourage the development of a more streamlined, efficient and educational closing process as the mortgage industry increases its usage of technology, electronic signatures and paperless processes,” the bureau said in a recent notice. The plan is to “encourage interventions that increase consumer knowledge, understanding and confidence at closing,” the agency said. Specifically, comment is sought...

Last week’s appointment of four special advisors to the Federal Housing Finance Agency by new Director Mel Watt has primed speculation of a policy-course correction at the FHFA but specific changes remain anyone’s guess, say industry observers. Watt added three current and former Obama administration officials into the agency’s fold “to provide counsel on policy and strategic decisions” at the agency while retaining an advisor from former FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco’s tenure. Two of the posts appear to represent new areas of focus for the agency – consumers and industry relations – that were often friction points under DeMarco. Bob Ryan, a former Freddie Mac executive, joins...

A lot of prospective homebuyers may be shut out of the market if their mortgage financing can’t pass muster with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s qualified-mortgage standard, congressional testimony this week suggested. Witnesses from The Peoples Bank Company, of Coldwater, OH, and Quicken Loans said during a House Financial Services Financial Institutions Subcommittee hearing this week that their firms plan to stay away from making mortgages that don’t fit into either the safe harbor or the rebuttable-presumption QM boxes. “There is...

The housing market is in the midst of a bubble or a gradual recovery, depending on who you ask. Analysts on either side of the debate point to the agency dominance of the mortgage market as one of the factors driving up home prices. Peter Wallison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, warned last week that the housing market is in the middle of another bubble. “Housing bubbles become visible – and can legitimately be called bubbles – when housing prices diverge significantly from rents,” he wrote in an op-ed published in the New York Times. Wallison pointed...

Private mortgage insurers have launched a number of initiatives to help lenders comply with the qualified-mortgage rule that took effect Jan. 10. The rule issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau puts new emphasis on capping debt-to-income ratios at 43 percent – except for agency mortgages – and limiting points and fees to 3 percent. Radian has announced 45-minute webinars discussing how QM impacts mortgage insurance as well as new, lower pricing for borrower-paid MI. The firm’s Loan Amount Estimator enables lenders that are capping their debt-to-income ratios at 43 percent to calculate maximum loan amounts and sale prices based on the MI product selected. In addition, the tool can be used for non-MI loans and is available through the MI’s rate finder application, Radian Rates. United Guaranty’s QMI product allows...

Mortgage lenders large and small have indicated they plan to stay away from making mortgages that do not fit into either the “safe harbor” or the “rebuttable presumption” QM boxes.

The FHFA IG audit estimates that some 9.5 percent of claims for pre-foreclosure property inspections in 2011 and 2012 resulted in $5 million of overpayments by Fannie Mae.

The GSEs' largesse is gaining new attention in Washington with the news that the two helped the U.S. government post a budget surplus of $53 billion in December.

The MBA suggested the CFPB increase the "rebuttable presumption" threshold from 150 basis points above the average prime offer rate to 250 basis points so more borrowers with less-than-perfect credit can benefit.