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Inside Mortgage Finance

October 19, 2017

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Agency Servicing Continued Growing in 3Q17, But Top Banks Still Pulling Back

The universe of servicing single-family home loans for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae continued to expand in the third quarter, but a handful of large banks wanted little to do with it. The three agencies had a combined $6.378 trillion of single-family mortgage-backed securities outstanding at the end of September, up 1.9 percent from the midway point in the year, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of agency MBS disclosures. All three ... [Includes two data charts] Read More

Big Banks Report Decent Production Figures for Third Quarter of 2017

It’s still early in the reporting cycle for third-quarter results, but major banks so far have reported solid origination gains from the previous period, but nothing to set the world on fire. In terms of percentage gains, JPMorgan Chase reported a 12.5 percent increase from the second to the third quarter. U.S. Bancorp was up 11.0 percent, Wells Fargo had a 5.0 percent gain and Citigroup reported a 3.2 percent increase. Bank of America mortgage originations were down slightly. The five ... Read More

Brokers Voice Frustrations about ‘Whole-Tail’ Lenders: Wholesale Lenders that also have Retail Operations

Long-running tension between mortgage brokers and retail lenders with wholesale operations ratcheted up recently as a new group urged brokers to stop working with “whole-tail” lenders. Brokers Rallying Against Whole-tail Lending said it coined the term “whole-tail” lender as “a swipe at lenders that offer both wholesale and retail services on paper, when in reality, their primary business objective is to feed stolen prospect information directly to their affiliate companies.” “It is important that ... Read More

Freddie Mac Pushes Back Against Criticism of Its Use of Equifax for Merged Credit Reports

Freddie Mac faced criticism last week from consumer advocates for the way the government-sponsored enterprise’s automated underwriting system handles certain functions involving merged credit reports and Equifax. A story in the New York Times this week detailed how Equifax acted as a “gatekeeper” for certain borrower credit information in Freddie’s Loan Quality Advisor. LQA is a risk and eligibility assessment tool that evaluates loan data to help lenders determine if ... Read More

Ocwen’s Departure from the Wholesale Channel Sparks Speculation About a Total Exit from Lending

Ocwen Financial, which continues to work through an array of regulatory settlements, is shuttering its wholesale-broker division, a move that’s sparking speculation about its future as an originator. The strategy shift is curious on several fronts: the disclosure was buried at the bottom of a recent regulatory filing on state settlements; broker-wholesale production accounts for roughly half of the company’s originations; and management not too long ago expressed a desire to ... Read More

Most Servicing Amendments Kick in This Week, Even More Complexity Expected When States Act

Most of the final amendments the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau made to its mortgage servicing rules kicked in late this week, and the biggest challenge firms will have to contend with is the increased complexity. In an interview this week with Inside Mortgage Finance, Nanci Weissgold, a partner with the Alston & Bird law firm in Washington, DC, highlighted which provisions took effect this week and those coming on line next spring, and what they mean for ... Read More

Industry Supports Carson’s Plan to Work with DOJ on Reducing FCA Risk for FHA Lenders

Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson is getting good reviews from mortgage industry participants regarding his congressional testimony late last week on program reforms, particularly his strategy for dealing with FHA exposure under the False Claims Act. Industry observers noted an improvement in Carson’s knowledge and understanding of HUD programs since taking office in March. His nomination by President Trump was controversial because ... Read More

Housing Industry Groups No Longer United in Stance on Value of Mortgage Interest Deduction

The mortgage interest deduction, or MID, used to rank with apple pie and motherhood for real estate agents, mortgage lenders and homebuilders. But against the backdrop of an intense effort by Republicans to overhaul the tax code, some groups are showing more flexibility on the issue. Complicating matters is that neither the Trump administration nor key players on Capitol Hill have been explicit or consistent in what they want. The Mortgage Bankers Association wrote to the ... Read More

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