Loan Think

Corporate culture can be a powerful tool for a good leader — and a poison pill for a bad one.

Fannie and Freddie are irredeemable failures, which must be abolished as the first step in any type of housing finance reform — if current and former officials of the U.S. Department of the Treasury are to be believed.

A key element to the final qualified mortgage rule is supposed to deliver QM protection to otherwise unqualified loans, opening up smaller lenders to make more loans. Here's why that's not going to work.

A proprietary loan origination system is the best way to stay ahead of compliance and organizational growth.

What's old is new again, but lenders should heed lessons from the past when re-entering the second-lien originations market.

The administration apparently intends to leave office without addressing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's capital bases and therefore the tight credit conditions.

Combined with the disparate impact theory, recently recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court under the Fair Housing Act, the HMDA rule further compounds legal risks and business challenges to lenders.

An alternative compliance model merges mortgage and home equity oversight by focusing on common operations is an innovative way to compete with the traditional manner of handling those efforts separately.

The Consumer Financial Protection Database might be unfair to the financial services industry, but the information it holds for lenders and servicers can help them manage customer service and avoid costly litigation.

Contrary to the arguments of its critics, the mortgage insurance premium reduction issued in January has helped spur positive capital growth for the Federal Housing Administration.