Lenders are directing more resources toward purchase-mortgage originations and reporting that they are holding underwriting requirements firm. However, an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of mortgages delivered to the government-sponsored enterprises suggests that purchase-mortgage underwriting requirements have gradually loosened in the past year. The focus on purchase mortgages became urgent as interest rates started to increase in May, settling for the moment about 100 basis points higher than they were in April, reducing demand for refinances. In October, purchase mortgages accounted for over half of the loans securitized by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. The vast majority of 68 lenders surveyed by the Federal Reserve said...[Includes one data chart]

A trio of industry groups is calling upon the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to make sure there is adequate testing of the pending mortgage-origination disclosure forms expected to be released within the next few weeks. In a letter to CFPB Director Richard Cordray, the American Escrow Association, the American Financial Services Association and the Consumer Mortgage Coalition said they strongly support testing the forms before they are put into use. “There are a large number of mortgage loan products in the marketplace, and the rounds of forms the CFPB has released and tested do not accommodate all of them,” the groups said. The forms that have been released so far won’t work...

On Thursday morning, Fairholme chief Bruce Berkowitz said, "We’re talking to everyone about this plan,” then added: “We’d love to talk to Treasury.”

The CFPB expects the vast majority of institutions to be in substantial compliance with its new mortgage rules by the January deadlines.

Pete Carroll's mortgage credentials include a stint at Overture Technologies, a mortgage technology firm based in the Washington, DC, area.

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."