Origination

The dollar number of U.S. fixed-rate commercial mortgages that were liquidated in March rose by 49% from February, according to Trepp. However, the majority of loans with losses have losses of less than 2%.

Montgomery County Employees FCU announced it is now offering members a HarmonyLoan mortgage, which adjusts its interest rate at the member’s call.

The Federal Home Loan banks and their members are urging the Federal Housing Finance Agency to scrap a proposal that would make it tougher to join — and stay a part of — the cooperative system. The banks and their allies argue the plan is too restrictive and could both harm the economy and jeopardize the future of the Home Loan Bank System.

Banks' old problems kept easing in the first quarter. Their new problems didn't.That's what analysts expect to hear from JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. this week as they kick off quarterly results.

There is a new resource for consumers to turn to when they are seeking information about how credit scores work. The website www.creditscorequiz.org is a joint project of the Consumer Federation of America and VantageScore Solutions Inc.

Although some mortgage lenders are seeing a noticeable decline in originations and have even cut staff, Union Bank of San Francisco is coming off its best production quarter ever.

Jordy Castillo, one of the few young originators in today’s market, plans to be a top producer.If there has been one lament from mortgage industry participants over the downsizing in terms of employment as a result of the housing crisis, it is that many of those who left were the younger generation.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ—Mortgage company owners and managers can piece together employment agreements in a fashion where they can avoid or mitigate the damages caused by a minimum wage/overtime lawsuit, explained an attorney who is an expert in these matters.

We recommend that the U.S. housing finance market of the future should be governed by four basic principles:I. The housing finance market—like other U.S. industries and housing finance systems in most other developed countries—can and should principally function without any direct government financial support.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is working on simplifying the mortgage disclosure process and industry groups are just as busy—drafting their own disclosures to influence the new agency.