Origination

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is entering 'round four' of testing new mortgage disclosure forms, and is now requesting public input on what should be said regarding adjustable rate mortgages.

The Obama administration is proposing to use $15 billion of government money for "land bank" opportunities to help communities with large concentrations of distressed commercial and residential properties.

A federal judge this week ruled that the court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of Thornburg Mortgage, Santa Fe, can move forward with a lawsuit against Barclays Capital alleging the investment banker made improper margin calls that helped drive the jumbo lender/servicer into bankruptcy.

A dozen local housing markets have shown enough improvement over the last six months to make the cut for a new "good news" index the National Association of Home Builders hopes will take some of the spotlight off national measures that tend to portray only gloom and doom.

Radian Guaranty Inc., Philadelphia, reported a decline of roughly 600 loans in its delinquent loan inventory for August. But new notices of problem loans (late payers) outpaced cures by about 1,600 loans.

Roughly 9.43% of commercial real estate loans – including multifamily product -- that have been securitized are now 30-days or more late, a record, according to new figures compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Congress is working to prevent a lapse in the availability of federal flood insurance money by the end of September, a move that could help bolster the fortune of mortgage bankers who fund loans in areas prone to flooding.

Small mortgage banking companies hustled in the second quarter to go after the mortgage purchase business and remained profitable as refinancings dried up.

Bank of America Corp. chief executive Brian Moynihan promised investors he would save $5 billion in costs by 2013, but was otherwise scarce on details during a much-anticipated speech on Monday.

Work-life balance has come up in the news, in a rather unexpected way. In a ruling dismissing an employee pregnancy discrimination case against Bloomberg LP, Judge Loretta A. Preska of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan declared that employers are not required by the law to make sure there is a work-life balance.