Finance

The megabank's net income declined by 13% during the fourth quarter as a result of a $1.2 billion pretax loss on sale related to the divestiture of its remaining operations in Russia.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, America's second-largest bank posted earnings that came in just above Wall Street's forecasts.

Total lock volume increased 2% from November and finished 30% higher than last December, according to Optimal Blue's latest Market Advantage report.

The bank did $16 billion of originations during the final three months of 2025, with the quarter-to-quarter increase beating industry-wide growth forecasts.

Trump's proposed $200B MBS purchase briefly tightened mortgage spreads, but analysts question the long-term impact on mortgage rates and GSE balance sheets.

With ongoing affordability issues, the Federal Housing Administration program will keep taking low down payment market share from the private mortgage insurers.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is selling more due-and-payable HECMs on homes that are occupied while reviewing the loan program.

A shared client base helped lead to introduction of the new integration, with implementation scheduled to come later this year, the companies said.

Largely strong credit qualities were offset because by loans on single-family homes in the pool dropping by 0.5%, and that the percentage of loans that received due diligence decreased by 0.4%.

A housing official renewed his call for credit bureaus to address lenders' concerns. Low pull-through magnifies a cost that's small relative to others.

While the US military operation in Venezuela didn't hit sentiment on American financial markets, the action reminded investors how tenuous any trading thesis can be in a world undergoing geopolitical changes.

With limited seasoning and primarily a clean payment history, OBX 2026-NQM1 had a seasoned probability of default of 33.3% among the AAA stresses and 11.4% among the B.

Late last year, commercial bank holdings of mortgage paper reached the highest level since 2023 as these depositories are flush with deposits.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods attributes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac portfolio growth for the narrower spreads, but other reasons include lower volatility.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari said on CNBC that both sides of the central bank's dual mandate show signs of imbalance, with the labor market appearing more vulnerable.

A definitive move could occur as early as fiscal year 2026 or take until 2033, depending on what the government is willing to do, according to one analyst.

For 2026, most Wall Street interest-rate strategists expect stable-to-higher Treasury yields as the Fed's rate-cutting cycle comes to an end.

A significant portion of the loans in the pool by balance, 44.5%, are designated at non-QM, according to DBRS, adding that about 50% of the loans in the pool were made to investors for business purposes.

Some action items could make a big difference for both mortgage lenders and consumers, but the Trump Administration is not yet focused on these concerns.

National Mortgage News takes a look back at some of the major or unique transactions which went on, or in some cases didn't happen, in the past 12 months.