Origination

The Justice Department late Wednesday announced that it has reached a $335 million settlement with Countrywide Financial Corp., now owned by Bank of America, in the largest fair lending action in history.

Although residential originations fell by 20% in the third quarter — compared to the same period last year — multifamily production went in the opposite direction, rising 80%, according to figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.

Subjective thinking still is playing catch-up with the objective need for mortgage process automation, pushing mortgage technology providers to expand their paper-to-paperless offerings.

Running a company is stressful—everyone knows that, but with a little help from technology, CEOs can rejoice. Sit back, relax and watch your respected business empire grow with the simple touch of your trusted iPhone.

Existing home sales increased 4.0% in November to a seasonally adjusted 4.42 million-unit rate, after a downwardly revised 4.25 million unit rate in October, the National Association of Realtors announced Wednesday. NAR announced its benchmark revisions.

Residential loan applications fell by almost 3% for the week ending December 16, despite continued historically low rates, according to new figures compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

After reading bits and pieces of the Securities and Exchange Commission's complaint against the former heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac one thought comes to mind: what exactly is a subprime loan again?

Awareness to the negative equity problem faced by millions of borrowers and their lenders continues to concern market insiders as they strive to come up with solutions that can help ease the setback. It is the goal of the new Home Affordable Refinance Program and some insurers whose products offer some degree of protection as an added incentive to homeowners interested in refinancing or taking on a new mortgage.

As part of its growth plans, Greenlight Financial Services, Irvine, Calif., has added a reverse mortgage division. The 10-year old company is hiring 400 people across the board to fill its needs as a result of the expansion.

Loan origination system provider Ellie Mae is changing its strategy for integrating its technology and customer base with that of recently acquired LOS vendor Del Mar DataTrac, by offering the DMD's point of sale application to users of the DataTrac LOS.