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Inside Mortgage Trends

June 4, 2010

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Banks Report Sharp Drop in Mortgage Banking Income as Production Sags

Commercial banks posted a solid $4.671 billion in net earnings from their mortgage banking activities during the first quarter of 2010, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis and ranking of call report data. That represented five consecutive quarters of healthy mortgage banking earnings for the industry... [Includes one chart and one graph] Read More

Industry Needs New Approach to Risk Management

A lot of things went wrong in the collapse of the mortgage market in 2007 and 2008, but the havoc might have been mitigated to a significant extent by much stronger risk management processes, according to a new study released by the Mortgage Bankers Association. “It would be overly simplistic to blame the crisis on avaricious business executives, weak boards... Read More

RATA Expands Fair Lending Compliance Software

Mortgage lenders should begin examining their loan portfolios – and servicers their loan modification practices – for potential fair lending risk in anticipation of a major government push against mortgage fraud and financial discrimination. Tighter fair lending enforcement is on the horizon as the Obama administration’s Financial Fraud... Read More

FASB Reignites Debate with Fair Value Proposal

A controversial accounting proposal requiring financial institutions to mark certain assets and liabilities to market could cause banks to avoid longer-term, fixed-rate loans for products with shorter maturities in order to dampen wild swings in their financial statements, warned the American Bankers Association. The latest ruckus over mark-to-market accounting stems from a May 26 exposure draft... Read More

GSEs Launch Data Quality Improvement Initiative

A new data standardization and improvement project at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could pay benefits for mortgage lenders by streamlining operations and simplifying secondary market decisions. The Uniform Mortgage Data Program is “a major step toward meeting industry requests for uniformity in appraisal and loan data,” said Edward DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance... Read More

Warehouse Lending Signals Uneven Recovery

There are still some frustrated lenders who complain that warehouse lending funding remains scarce, but others say the flow of capital is beginning to resume. “Warehouse lenders going out of business, terminating, or adding restrictions to their warehouse lines of credit are causing independent (non-depository) mortgage lenders to struggle to maintain... Read More

Barclays Sells Subprime Servicer HomEq to Ocwen

Barclays Bank said last week that it sold its servicing unit HomeEq to Ocwen Loan Servicing in a deal worth around $1.3 billion. Barclays acquired HomeEq, a subprime servicer, during the subprime boom when many Wall Street banks wanted platforms to support their subprime mortgage-backed securities activities. As part of the sale of HomEq to Ocwen... Read More

Kislak Re-enters Residential Mortgage Business

A Florida-based firm that traces its mortgage banking pedigree back to the early 1950s is getting back into the residential home loan market after a six-year hiatus. The Kislak Organization recently announced that it is launching a new direct lending operation that will focus on retail originations in the Southeast, J.I. Kislak Mortgage. The new unit will have... Read More

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