Meanwhile, industry consultant Christopher Whalen noted, “What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, some of the industry’s largest independent mortgage banks were in danger of tipping over due to the liquidity wave unleashed by the FOMC in response to COVID."

Thanks to rising rates, mortgage stocks have been under pressure of late but most of the declines have affected lenders that recently went public as opposed to “older” firms such as Mr. Cooper and PennyMac Financial Services.

The MSR totals are based on February loan production by this particular seller...

The slope also remained slippery for home-equity debt outstanding. The Federal Reserve reported $441.6 billion of home-equity loans outstanding at the end of 2020, an 11.9% drop from the previous year.

The company added: “We cannot predict the continued impact of an increased interest rate environment on our originations or gain-on-sale margins. Further, there is no assurance that these preliminary results will be indicative of our final results for the three months ended March 31, 2021 or in any future period.”

The IAC said the SEC chose to make the reports confidential, despite the fact that the authorizing legislation didn’t require it.

“More than 11% of borrowers in forbearance have now exceeded the 12-month mark,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s SVP and chief economist. “We anticipate that servicers will be busy over the next month"...

The sudden dominance of nonbanks in mortgage banking profits was due to Rocket Companies, parent of Quicken Loans...