Consumer direct

Marketplace lenders seek to disrupt traditional financial services with online platforms that connect borrowers to investors. But in real estate, this burgeoning sector has taken an approach that seeks to co-exist with, rather than supplant, the traditional mortgage market.

DotLoop, the tech startup Zillow just bought, takes the headaches and duplication out of managing real estate documents — up until the hardest part of the transaction, the mortgage. Expanding into mortgages is possible, but would be tricky.

J.G. Wentworth Co. has begun a marketing campaign to call attention to its new home-lending business.

Prospect Mortgage will end any activities being undertaken as part of marketing services agreements because of regulatory risk.

From CFPB and TRID to QM and ATR, the barrage of new abbreviations emanating from the Dodd-Frank Act has only been matched by the enormity of the changes it made to the mortgage industry. Here are 10 ways that the landmark financial reform legislation has reshaped the mortgage industry since becoming law five years ago.

A new platform developed by Overture Technologies seeks to pair consumers and lenders online without charging for advertising by the number of clicks or leads generated.

BOK Financial has hired Glenn Brunker to oversee mortgage operations and manage the bank's transition to a new federally required consolidated mortgage disclosure regime.

Stonegate Mortgage will expand its consumer-direct operations in Scottsdale, Ariz., with plans to add about 50 employees.

Mortgage originators willing to help consumers overcome traditional financing hurdles can add more emerging segments of home buyers as clients.

Farmers Bank & Trust in Great Bend, Kan., has agreed to sell certain assets of its mortgage division to Prospect Mortgage in Sherman Oaks, Calif.

Altisource Portfolio Solutions has upgraded its sell-it-yourself real estate platform, Owners.com, and will offer a rebate to buyers who purchase a home through the site.

Discover Financial Services will exit the residential mortgage-origination business that it acquired in 2012.

Casey Crawford went from playing on a team that won the Super Bowl to running a mortgage company that he expects to originate almost $8 billion in U.S. home loans this year.

The mortgage lender Nationstar Mortgage Holdings is pouring a lot of energy into a digital and mobile homebuying platform called Xome. The strategy could attract tech-savvy millennials but carries plenty of risks including whether consumers would be improperly steered to its products.

There are more similarities between the NFL and the mortgage industry than at first meets the eye.

WashingtonFirst Bankshares in Reston, Va., has agreed to buy direct mortgage lender 1st Portfolio Holding Corp. in Fairfax, Va.

With the countdown of the 2015 Top Producers rankings now complete, check out the entire list of this year's best loan officers and brokers.

We're counting down this year's Top Producers. Check out which loan officers made the cut in the latest segment of the list!

We're counting down this year's Top Producers. Check out which loan officers made the cut in the latest segment of the list!

We're counting down this year's Top Producers. Check out which loan officers made the cut in the latest segment of the list!