Origination

Despite a rough start, the huge Houston housing market ended 2011 solidly in the black.

The reverse mortgage loan origination business has matured to the point to where it needs a standardized loan data file format, said an executive with RMS, Houston.

"If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live." —Martin Luther King, Jr.

Richard Cordray is center stage not just at a brand-new regulator. The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will also play a crucial role at an agency born of bank runs and the Dust Bowl and intimately involved in mortgage issues.

Home sales unexpectedly rose in December, reversing a purchase slide in November, according to new figures released by RE/MAX on Tuesday.

Citigroup repurchased 6,800 residential loans in 2011, an 80% jump from 2010 with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac accounting for the lion's share of those buybacks, according to figures released Tuesday.

Private-equity groups that invested some $900 million in Florida lender BankUnited Inc. less than three years ago may now be ready to cash out.

Bank risk professionals expect delinquencies on most types of consumer loans to rise, balances on credit cards to grow and global concerns will all affect the nation's economic health, according to a FICO survey.

Commercial mortgage banker Walker & Dunlop, Bethesda, Md., funded $4 billion of new loans in 2011, a 27% gain from the year prior, according to newly reported figures.

As Bank of America and other megabanks - except Wells Fargo, of course - continue to scale back their presence in residential finance a rebirth in mid-sized firms is underway, or so we're told. One veteran investment banker we know said there are now many nonbank funders that are producing $3 billion to $5 billion a year in new product.