Origination

On July 17, an indictment was issued in New Jersey charging 11 individuals from five states a for their alleged roles in a $15 million mortgage fraud scam that used phony documents and straw buyers to make illegal profits on overbuilt condos, including a defendant who attempted to murder a witness to the scheme.

To be successful in the mortgage business, you need to remain healthy.

Lender Processing Services found that overall 7.14% of mortgages were in arrears as of June and estimates that its figures encompass 70% of the overall market.

Mortgage rates fell to yet another all-time low this week, 3.49% for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage.

A new Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization workgroup intends to create a universal loan document identification protocol that would be based on loan-specific data and enable any entity across the lending process to use a common formula to create or recreate the unique identifier.

Stewart Information Services Corp. saw its net earnings increase 319% from 2Q11, while First American Financial Corp. had its best title margins since 2005 as it earned $73 million, more than double the $32 million in 2Q11 profits.

You might say the megabanks – for now – are sitting in the catbird seat. They have more loan applications than they know what to do with – and they have no desire whatsoever to add more staff to handle the volume, because, well, that’s what happens when you have a cartel.

EverBank Financial originated $2.7 billion of loans and leases in the second quarter, up 19% from the first quarter and 89% from the year ago.

What's a mortgage loan originator to do when he discovers that one of the trade lines in an applicant's credit report actually belongs to a relative with a very similar name?

The worst of the credit crisis has passed, but many banks are still living on borrowed time. So contends Kamal Mustafa, the chairman and chief executive of Invictus Consulting Group, which specializes in stress-testing banks.