Origination

Most lenders and servicers likely may pay no mind to the work of the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization's contingent of dedicated volunteers. They don't care how the technology works; they just want it to work.

Mortgage technology and fulfillment outsourcing vendor ISGN raised $30 million in fresh capital from its existing group of investors.

I hiked what I call a small mountain in Imerovigli, Santorini, Greece. From the pool, it's about 900 or so steps down (and up again, puff, puff) zigzagging along the side of a cliff. When the steps finally end, there's a skinny little path that winds its way around the side of the hill and up to the top.

The warehouse commitment business is booming at People's United Bank of Connecticut which last fall hired industry veteran Paul Best from PNC Bank to run its operation.

State mortgage regulators should get ready for a swarm of consumer complaints against lenders this fall, a California lawyer who focuses on unfair lending practices and foreclosures warned.

First the good news: the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury hit yet another new low Wednesday afternoon, but many mortgage-related stocks experienced losses ranging from 2% to 8% in a morning selloff.

Fitch late Tuesday downgraded its ratings on Republic Mortgage Insurance and then withdrew entirely its coverage of the firm, saying its business likely will enter run-off status in the near future.

The debt ceiling debate not only brought the nation's economy to its knees, it also put a crimp in housing sales in the Nation's Capital, where activity had been climbing steadily for several months.

The huge sell-off in the stock market on Aug. 4 capped a week of declines in the Dow Jones Industrial Average which in turn helped to push the average contract rate on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage down another 8 basis points that week.

With Bank of America dangerously weighed down by costly acquisitions, its longstanding contention that it could jettison its troubled mortgage unit Countrywide must hold considerable appeal within the company's executive offices.