Origination

The Obama administration, which has proposed levying a tax on the largest banks as a way to pay for a broad mortgage refinancing plan, is now in talks with members of Congress about finding an alternative source of funding, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said Thursday.

Last week, the CFPB issued a compliance bulletin confirming that it would follow the disparate impact theory in advancing claims of discriminatory lending practices. The importance of the disparate impact theory is that it does not require a showing of intentional discrimination. Rather, it simply requires the government to show that a lender’s policies and/or practices resulted in a discriminatory outcome-regardless of the intent.

Large banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, credited a pickup in mortgage banking returns for helping boost their quarterly revenue.

MetLife Inc. said it will exit the reverse lending business selling the division to Nationstar Mortgage of Texas.

Aided by its January purchase of State Bancorp, Valley National Bancorp in Wayne, N.J., reported strong loan growth in the first quarter, though its overall earnings declined slightly from the prior year due to merger related costs and other one-time events.

Three out of the four national title insurance underwriters reported improved results for the first quarter, with two of them—First American and Old Republic—turning year-ago losses into profits.

After the conclusion of a successful pilot program, the Internal Revenue Service is planning to roll out the production version of its electronic signature capabilities for Form 4506-T by the end of 2012, according to officials who detailed the plans during the MBA tech show in Phoenix this week.

Sun Home Loans, the mortgage lending division of Sun National Bank, Vineland, N.J., hired 50 former MetLife Home Loans employees.

Sterling Financial, Spokane, Wash., reported that first-quarter net income rose 146% from the same period last year, to $13.3 million, due primarily to growth in loan balances, lower funding costs and improved asset quality.

Changes made late last year to the Obama administration's flagship mortgage refinance program have boosted profits at the nation's largest banks at the expense of homeowners and U.S. taxpayers, according to mortgage experts testifying at a Senate hearing on Wednesday