Mortgage origination volume was down sharply in 2014, but not by as much as previously thought, according to an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data released this week by federal regulators. A total of $1.242 trillion of single-family purchase and refinance loans were originated during 2014, the HMDA data reveal. That was down 29.5 percent from the 2013 HMDA total, although purchase-mortgage lending was up slightly in both the government-insured and conventional markets. HMDA first-lien purchase and refi originations came...[Includes one data table]

The supply of home mortgage debt outstanding started growing again during the second quarter of 2015, thanks to relatively strong growth in retained portfolios, according to an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of new data from the Federal Reserve and other sources. The Fed reported late last week that $9.901 trillion of single-family mortgage debt was outstanding as of the end of June. That was up 0.4 percent from March and represented the biggest supply of mortgage servicing since the third quarter of 2013. The servicing market had been shrinking...[Includes two data tables]

Bond investing giant PIMCO has quietly purchased First Guaranty Mortgage Corp., Frederick, MD, for roughly $50 million, gaining a toehold into an industry it has been carefully eyeing for well over two years now. The acquisition – confirmed to Inside Mortgage Finance by several sources – comes roughly three months after the company pulled out of talks with RoundPoint Mortgage, the nation’s 24th largest servicer. PIMCO – formally known as Pacific Investment Management Co. – has tried...

The CFPB is committed to helping the mortgage industry fully implement the pending TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule to the maximum extent possible, and its examination approach will focus on being “diagnostic” and “corrective,” not “gotcha” oriented, a top bureau official said during an industry conference early this week. Speaking at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s 2015 regulatory compliance conference in Washington, DC, Diane Thompson, managing counsel in the bureau’s Office of Regulations, tried to reassure anxious lender representatives about the industry’s transition to a dramatically different lending environment under the new regulatory regime. “We understand that this is a major change ... that we are not going to flip some magic switch on Oct. 3 and the world will suddenly ...

As the pending Oct. 3, 2015, effective date for the CFPB’s integrated disclosure rule approaches, both the bureau and industry groups issued last-minute guides and other materials to help various sectors comply as effectively as possible. The rule is intended to harmonize and integrate the disclosures required under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act; hence the term “TRID,” an acronym for the more formal TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule. Last week, on the lender front, the bureau released three supervisory publications that have been updated to reflect the new TRID effective date. They include the interagency TILA and RESPA examination procedures, developed in coordination with the members of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council Consumer ...

The CFPB recently brought enforcement actions against two large debt buyers and collectors, Encore Capital Group, in San Diego, and Portfolio Recovery Associates, in Norfolk, VA, accusing the companies of using deceptive tactics to collect bad debts. The bureau said the companies bought debts that were potentially inaccurate, lacking documentation or unenforceable. “Without verifying the debt, the companies collected payments by pressuring consumers with false statements and churning out lawsuits using robo-signed court documents,” said the CFPB. In terms of the companies’ allegedly illegal litigation practices, the CFPB accused the pair of misrepresenting their intention to prove debts they sued consumers over. They also allegedly sued or threatened to sue consumers past the statute of limitations. Further, the companies allegedly ...

he CFPB and the Department of Justice said in an amicus brief with the Supreme Court of the United States that a plaintiff does not necessarily have to prove actual harm from a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act in order to have standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution. The specific question in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins is whether the respondent (Robins) identified an Article III injury-in-fact by alleging that the petitioner (Spokeo) had willfully violated the FCRA by publishing inaccurate personal information in consumer reports – in this case, on a consumer-reporting type website – without following reasonable procedures to assure the information’s accuracy. In their brief, the CFPB and DOJ argue that the invasion of the respondent’s ...

Multiple Issues With TRID Remain, Official Says. Mortgage Bankers Association Vice Chairman Rodrigo Lopez told attendees at the group’s Risk Management, Quality Assurance and Fraud Prevention Forum in Dallas recently that the MBA supports additional disclosures, but that “many issues remain to be resolved” when it comes to the TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule. “So far, the CFPB has provided only limited guidance on the new rules,” he noted. “MBA is urging the CFPB to resolve a number of issues, including differences between state and federal laws, that threaten to add layers of complexity to the mortgage loan process.” Lopez went on to say that legislation in Congress that would provide mortgage lenders with a safe harbor for their good-faith ...

Last week, Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions was slated to issue a roughly $150 million security backed by nonprime mortgages, an event that promised great things for both the company and the non-agency market. But then nothing happened, or so it appears. Two weeks after confirming to Inside MBS & ABS and another news organization that a new nonprime security was definitely ready to price, the company – and its underwriter, Nomura Securities – has suddenly stopped talking about the deal, both publicly and privately. One source who has held meetings with executives at both firms said...

The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee this week fulfilled the expectations of roughly half the Wall Street participants and economists surveyed by financial news organizations and opted to hold the line on interest rates, and to maintain the status quo when it comes to the Fed’s massive balance sheet holdings of agency residential MBS and debt. “We recognize that there has been a great deal of focus on today’s policy decision,” Fed Chair Janet Yellen said in her press conference after the FOMC’s two-day meeting concluded Thursday afternoon. “The recovery from the Great Recession has advanced sufficiently far, and domestic spending appears sufficiently robust, that an argument can be made for a rise in interest rates at this time. We discussed this possibility at our meeting. “However, in light of the heightened uncertainties abroad, and a slightly softer expected path for inflation, the committee judged...