FHA purchase loan originations, which comprise the bulk of the agency’s business, declined during the first quarter of 2018 as mortgage interest rates continued to rise. Approximately $34.8 billion in FHA-insured purchase mortgages were made during the first three months, down 13.5 percent from the previous quarter. Purchase originations also fell 12.0 percent year-over-year, data showed. Purchase loans accounted for 71.1 percent of all FHA loans made to consumers in the first quarter. Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. led all lenders with $880.8 million. This week, the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose by 1 basis point to 4.71 percent from last week, according to Bankrate’s weekly survey of large lenders. Four weeks ago, the rate was 4.64 percent. Over the past 52 weeks, the 30-year fixed has averaged 4.31 percent, Bankrate added. This week’s rate is 40 basis points higher than the ... [Charts]

Federal courts have thrown out the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s aggressive interpretation of anti-kickback provisions in the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. But plenty of questions remain about how new management of the agency will handle the issue or the fate of existing guidance on marketing service agreements, industry experts said this week.

The D.C. circuit decision involving PHH Mortgage and Sec. 8 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act should lead the CFPB to rethink its 2015 guidance on marketing services agreements, industry groups say. The CFPB under former director Richard Cordray issued guidance suggesting that many MSAs are designed to evade RESPA’s prohibition on the payment and acceptance of kickbacks and referral fees. “What the bureau did was to create an impression that it would ...

A House Republican asked the CFPB to stop so- called regulation by enforcement and to clarify the use and role of the guidance it has issued. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-MO, recently sent a letter to six agencies, including the CFPB, expressing concerns that guidance that does not go through notice-and-comment rulemaking has been used as the basis of enforcement actions. “Many of my colleagues and I hear frequently from financial institutions that guidance promulgated ...

The CFPB fined a South Carolina-based installment lender $5 million for unlawful debt collection practices, including threatening consumers with jail, shoving them and physically blocking a consumer from leaving private property. It is the second enforcement action since Mick Mulvaney, the White House budget director, took the reins of the CFPB last year. The Security Group and its subsidiaries own and operate approximately 900 locations in 20 states across the country ...

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 CFPB is expected to move more quickly to reconsider its payday-lending rule after a federal court denied the delay of the rule’s compliance date that had been requested in a joint motion filed by the CFPB and two trade groups. Two payday-lending trade groups – the Community Financial Services Association of America and the Consumer Services Alliance of Texas – in April filed a lawsuit in Texas federal district court, alleging the agency’s payday-lending rule is unlawful ...

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.