Originations

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is forging ahead with its plan to release a single mortgage disclosure form by July 21, despite industry calls to slow down the process.

George L. Engelke Jr. has resigned as chairman of Astoria Financial, ending his long tenure with the Lake Success, N.Y., company that included a 22-year run as its chief executive officer.

The public relations department of JPMorgan Chase has finally made up its mind: the megabank will only engage in FHA Streamline refinancings on loans that it presently services.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is coming under industry pressure to delay finalizing a merger of the RESPA/TILA mortgage disclosure forms until the qualified mortgage and qualified residential mortgage rules are finalized.

Taylor Capital Group is expanding its mortgage unit by hiring more than 60 retail mortgage professionals from Amera Mortgage.

Suzanne Hutchinson will retire at the end of the year from her post as executive vice president of the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America.

Freddie Mac raised its estimate for 2012 originations to $1.45 trillion in its latest economic and housing market outlook, citing lower expected 30-year rates. Freddie previously had forecast that 2012 would end with a total of just $1.3 trillion in originations.

When I suggested yesterday that mortgage lenders might contemplate an origination ‘strike’ as a bargaining tool to kill overly zealous regulations the idea was to have banks and nonbanks alike participate in such an action of civil disobedience.

Technology vendor Mortgage Cadence expects to expand the reach of its origination software in the credit union sector with its pending acquisition of Prime Alliance Solutions.

The national delinquency rate continues to decline on a yearly basis with the latest figures from Lender Processing Services revealing a 9.6% drop in the amount of late mortgage payments from May 2011.

Mortgage applications decreased by just under 1% for the week ending June 15, but FHA refinancings soared.

Discover Financial Services is finally getting its feet wet in the mortgage origination business, but the credit card lender isn't jumping into the deep end anytime soon.

For community bankers, it was always a romantic notion—the idea that they could give mortgage lending short shrift and beat the big guys on commercial loans. But mortgage lending is looking pretty good to these bankers now.

Redwood Trust soon will market another new jumbo MBS deal—this one, like the others—dominated by California mortgages which comprise just over 49% of the bond.

Traditionally, underwriting focused on applying a static set of guidelines to determine an approve/reject decision.

The concept of the certified loan is a “game changer” that can help protect lenders from fraudulent applicants.

Moody’s noted that improvements in the apartment market have dissipated in recent months after the index soared to roughly 140.

The office vacancy rate in major Canadian cities fell to 5% in the second quarter from 5.4% in the first quarter, the second time the reading has been this low since 1985.

Distressed property rental programs and new private-label mortgage originations pose new opportunities for investors.

Mortgage bankers and brokers (banks and nonbanks alike) could call a national strike on making any new loans for, say, 60 days and see what type of damage that does to the U.S. economy.