Origination

The lender has signed a letter of intent to acquire single-family mortgage operations and staff, according to Rick Arvielo, NAF's chief executive.

A key Senator had urged Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to lower rates early this year, but although there's more consensus on making such a move, it now looks unlikely to happen until after the next meeting.

The wholesale giant touts the move as giving brokers a leg up on banks and retail lenders waiting for the next origination wave.

Aspiring buyers took out fewer loans last week, leading to the overall decline, but the average purchase-loan size also surged to its highest mark since last spring, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

The parent company of Flagstar Bank surprised investors by slashing its dividend, charging off two large real-estate loans and preparing for more trouble in the office and multifamily sectors.

The company's building unit saw income slow, but the mortgage banking division number accelerated on both a quarterly and annual basis.

The net proceeds will be used to pay down borrowings on a credit line secured by its mortgage servicing portfolio.

The megabank failed to adequately protect and reimburse customers who were victims of wire-transfer fraud, according to a lawsuit by the New York Attorney General. Citi said that it follows all relevant laws and regulations.

Strategies used to falsify identities and property ownership highlight a public assistance vulnerability that could have implications for the mortgage industry.

A national gauge of prices climbed 0.2% in November from October, according to seasonally adjusted data from S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller. That's slower than the 0.6% monthly gain in October.