Only 11.22% of purchase-money mortgages purchased by the GSEs in the first quarter had FICO credit scores below 700. That was down from 12.05% in the fourth quarter and 14.66% a year ago.

Believe it or not, purchase loan applications increased 16.4% in Washington, one of the first states ravished by the pandemic...

For certain residential mortgages, including refis, banks can delay obtaining an appraisal for up to 120 days after a loan closes.

In the home equity department, BofA actually increased lending to $3.02 billion in the first quarter from $2.99 billion in 4Q19.

On the servicing front the news was grim. Wells revealed that its massive residential servicing portfolio declined in value by 29.4% from the prior period: $8.13 billion at March 31 compared to $11.52 billion at yearend.

In a nutshell, depository institutions managed to increase their sales of refinance loans sequentially while IMBs saw a drop...

In an industry update, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods predicts it may still take some time before the establishment of an emergency funding facility for residential servicers with MBS payments coming due.

The IVES system, which many criticize as being antiquated, functions by way of a fax machine...

One of the goals: to assist nonbanks so they are not declared in technical default, an event that would trigger financing covenants they have with their warehouse lenders.

Scott Olson, executive director of the Community Home Lenders Association: "This is a period of deep uncertainty for IMBs. Those that service [loans] are getting hit with huge unexpected liquidity demands regarding advances."