Lenders estimated that ATR/QM added $139 per loan to their ongoing origination costs.

Total U.S. debt outstanding is just over $21 trillion. Prior to the financial crisis, U.S. mortgage debt was actually larger than Treasury debt...

Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney, a vociferous critic of the consumer agency’s budget, is reportedly looking for ways to cut spending by tens of millions of dollars, including an option to move dozens of employees to the basement of its Washington headquarters. According to an internal cost-saving analysis obtained by Bloomberg News, Mulvaney’s top aides proposed to add 70 work spaces in the CFPB main building’s basement, which may save $16.6 million. Other ...

A group of Democratic senators is asking the U.S. Office of Special Counsel to investigate whether Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney violated the Hatch Act. The acting director last month said to bankers that he “had a hierarchy” in his office in Congress and only talked to lobbyists who gave him financial donations when he was a member of the House of Representatives from South Carolina. “It raises troubling questions about whether his statements ran afoul of the Hatch Act ...

It’s not clear if the REIT sector will amp up its participation in credit-risk transfer deals offered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac…

Starwood Property Trust, a REIT largely focused on commercial mortgages, has been stockpiling non-QMs…

A former Fannie executive (pre-federal takeover) said that when he worked at the GSE, “We looked at doing this, but were told it wasn’t in the charter and so we didn’t proceed.”

Flagstar says the problem is exacerbated by a lack of inventory in certain geographic markets…

Surely, conservatives are applauding the way Mulvaney is trying to remake the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau...

Former CFPB Director Richard Cordray challenged PHH’s captive reinsurance program, ruling that any referral of settlement business that involves payments is prohibited under RESPA…