“The greater comfort that banks have in the current regulatory environment has situated them as more potential buyers of mortgage servicing product than was the case several years ago,” Fitch Ratings said.
First Horizon announced on Thursday that its regional bank agreed to a $212.5 million settlement with the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The settlement relates to First Tennessee Bank’s underwriting and origination of FHA-insured mortgages from 2006 through 2008.
Broker originations delivered to the GSEs increased by 16.0 percent in the first quarter of 2015 compared with the previous quarter, the biggest gain among the three production channels.
Some 32 percent of first-time homebuyers said that referrals from friends, family or co-workers had a major influence on their choice of lender, compared with only 18 percent of repeat homebuyers.