Originations

The CFPB surprised many when its proposals announced earlier this month contained a provision to eliminate certain critical differences between brokers and creditors concerning the compensation of loan officers. This may not, however, be as significant for brokers as it may first appear.

The Federal Home Loan Banks stopped purchasing private-label MBS in 2008, but losses on those bad investments have been a major drag on earnings ever since. But that may be changing.

The Senate late this week passed a 60-day extension of the flood insurance program, preventing a shutdown of coverage by the beginning of June.

As the Litigation Compliance Law Center explained during a May 10 webinar, it was offering to pay finders' fees to mortgage brokers for recruiting homeowners who themselves paid a $5,000 up-front "retainer" to affiliated attorneys.

A pair of nonlisted real estate investment trusts with the same dealer/manager have modified their share repurchase programs to increase stockholder liquidity.

Credit quality improved in all major loan categories at commercial banks, savings banks and thrifts, except for single-family loans, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

LendingTree said from January to May, the proportion of borrowers who refinance into a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has increased by 5% on a year-over-year basis.

American Capital Mortgage Investment Corp., Bethesda, Md., has priced a public offering of 11 million shares of common stock for total expected gross proceeds of $253 million before expenses.

LemonDrop, a networking group for women mortgage industry professionals, held a reception at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix during the Mortgage Bankers Association’s technology conference in April.

The average weekly rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in Freddie Mac’s primary market survey held steady at its record low of 3.78% during the week ending May 24.

The three outside investors in Republic Financial Indemnity Group are George Cochran, chairman, financial institutions group at Macquarie Capital Advisors; David Kimmel, managing partner of Summit Capital LLC; and James W. Schacht, president of the Schacht Group.

Just days after predicting that this year’s mortgage originations would fall to their lowest level in volume since 2007, the Mortgage Bankers Association is changing its tune—singing at a higher note.

On Wednesday industry officials met with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to discuss the agency’s new proposal to reengineer how loan officers and brokers can make a living. To call it a nightmare might be an understatement, we were told by attendees.

“I would never stoop so low as to spy on my competition,” one loan officer said to me recently. Why not? Don’t think for a minute that they don’t know what you are up to.

Loan origination system vendor Mortgage Builder said it will acquire GCC Servicing Systems, the mortgage servicing technology vendor that it was spun off from in 1998.

Mortgage firms that use the correspondent and wholesale channels to fund loans experienced strong growth in the first quarter, according to preliminary survey information being compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.

In a buyer’s market, the smallest of processing hiccups can cause a lender to lose a potential borrower, which is why lenders place a premium on developing new digital delivery strategies.

WarehouseOne of Trenton, N.J., which has been in business since 1998, is demanding that a troubled lender with a similar-sounding name stop using that name.

Home prices rose 1.8% in March on a sequential basis and 0.6% during the first quarter, according to an index created by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The Census Bureau reported Wednesday that sales of newly built single-family homes rose to a 343,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate in April from a 332,000 rate in March.