Origination

Tree.com, Charlotte, N.C., has modified the agreement with Discover Financial Services regarding the latter's purchase of Home Loan Center, which does business as LendingTree Loans.

A House Financial Services panel on Tuesday approved a bill requiring the Federal Housing Administration to submit a plan to Congress on how it will avoid a bailout of its financially strapped mortgage insurance fund.

Fixed-rate mortgage rates hit all-time lows, spurring an increase in mortgage refinance loan application volume and as a result overall mortgage application volume increased 7.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ended Feb. 3, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Trapped between conflicting requirements that indicate collapse and abolition prospects, the future status of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is emerging as one of the year's biggest concerns.

Although this past Sunday was nominally about a football game (and yes, the parade could be seen from my office), from a marketer's standpoint, it is also their Super Bowl.

The United Kingdom's Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, said regulators there are considering regulating loan-to-value ratios in mortgage lending.

The greatest fear for small- to medium-sized nonbanks is that Wells Fargo—the "big kahuna" of mortgage finance—will exit the correspondent lending space. And what a fear it is: in the most recent quarter in which there are final numbers, Wells bought a stunning $41 billion of loans from others, giving it a market share of 30% in the channel.

HomeStreet Bank, Seattle, is in the throes of hiring dozens of loan officers who worked at MetLife Home Loans and anticipates that in time it will hire north of 160 workers.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network finalized regulations today by which non-bank residential mortgage lenders and originators will have to follow the same rules as other financial institutions.

PHH Corp. reported a GAAP profit of $13 million in the fourth quarter, but posted a GAAP loss of $127 million for the full year. Its core earnings, a measurement which among other things removes changes in the fair value of derivatives related to mortgage servicing rights, was $55 million for the quarter. For the full year, the company said using the core earnings measure, it had a profit of $182 million.