Origination

JPMorgan Chase chairman Jamie Dimon recently sat down with analysts at Citigroup Global Markets and told them what many smaller players in the mortgage business have believed all along: that a 20% downpayment definition on the 'qualified residential mortgage' test will benefit the nation's megabanks.

The Independent Community Bankers of America and Freddie Mac have renewed their eight-year-old alliance, extending it through March 2012.

A mortgage industry proposal to create "point banks" that loan officers can tap to grant price concessions to borrowers has been shot down by Federal Reserve Board staff.

New York-based commercial real estate lender iStar Financial has received nearly $3 billion in new loans which will be used to pay off previous borrowings.

A Fitch report released Friday morning suggests the growth rate for CMBS loan transfers into special servicing continues to slow, but some property sectors are doing better than others.

To jump start a plan or to get unstuck, you must accept that no matter how good the plan (to increase your sales), you will need to build into it The Law of Continuous Process Improvement for the plan to work over the long haul. Every plan requires continuous analysis and adjustment to find the way forward. Even basic tasks require a plan and a process of continuous improvement. This is important.

Mortgage technology vendor Lender Processing Services on Friday announced that it bought PCLender.com, a top 50 provider of enterprise and Web-based mortgage software, including LOS systems.

The Federal Reserve Board has decided to make it easier for title companies and other affiliates of mortgage firms to operate under the agency's loan officer compensation rule which goes into effect April 1.

The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and all of the Republicans on his panel are now demanding that the Federal Reserve Board withdraw its loan officer compensation rule which becomes effective in two weeks.

A Michigan jury this week ruled that Quicken Loans Inc., one of the nation's largest mortgage banking firms, does not have to pay nearly 350 plaintiffs over-time for extra hours they worked at the company.