Finance

Automating the mortgage process will force tighter margins, but drive higher volume, for lenders.

The Chicago company said its decision was largely based on intense competition, very low margins and economic changes.

Investors are growing worried about lackluster loan growth this year at community banks.

The future secondary mortgage market entities will receive high investment grade ratings, even as there is no clarity on their scope or form, Fitch Ratings said.

Technology startup Eave is making a foray into Colorado's fast-moving, high-end mortgage lending market by offering software designed to quickly analyze jumbo borrowers' more complex incomes and assets.

The increase in the delinquency rate for securitized CRE loans for March ended an eight-month streak of declines.

A pair of the nation's largest banks, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, made changes to their mortgage banking executive teams.

The investigation targeted 36 residential mortgage-backed securities deals involving $31 billion worth of loans, more than half of which defaulted, according to the Justice Department.

Lenders should not get so desperate chasing volume by originating lower credit non-qualified mortgage products that they are inviting the next regulatory crackdown, said David Stevens, the Mortgage Bankers Association's CEO.

There is an oncoming liquidity crisis that will force consolidation in the mortgage industry as margins tighten and funding sources dry up.

After several years of preparation, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will start issuing a new, common mortgage-backed security starting June 3, 2019, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said Wednesday.

The non-bank lender's $299.8 million prime, high-balance deal is no surprise; it follows a warehouse securitization last year. Angel Oak is also in the market with a $238.8 million deal.

Banks would welcome a proposal to loosen Basel III capital restrictions because it would make holding mortgage servicing rights easier and stem the recent exodus of depositories from the servicing business, executives said.

UBS agreed to pay $230 million to resolve a New York state probe into the Swiss bank's marketing and sales of residential mortgage-backed securities before the financial crisis, boosting the state's recoveries in the investigation to almost $4 billion.

Issuance of Ginnie Mae securities backed by reverse mortgages rose above $1 billion for the second time in two years, according to the government agency's latest monthly report.

Nonbanks are originating more commercial mortgages on fixer-uppers in response to a sharp drop in the cost of funding in the securitization market. These deals are said to be "vastly different" than other CRE instruments that sustained big losses in the crisis — so far.

First the House and now the Senate have included provisions in their regulatory relief bills that bankers say would go a long way toward clearing up confusion over how to treat high-volatility commercial real estate loans.

Mortgage lenders are growing more pessimistic about their profitability, with the highest percentage ever seen in Fannie Mae's first-quarter industry sentiment survey expecting a decline in margins.

Just one year after it got a $1.05 billion loan from a trio of banks (Goldman, BofA and Citi), Blackstone has obtained a new, $1.3 billion loan from two more banks: Barclays and Deutsche.

The security that was incorporated into the index is backed exclusively by loans on green building certified properties; the GSE is still working on acceptance of financing for green upgrades.