Originations

Flagstar Bancorp — which continues to rank among the top 10 mortgage wholesalers in the U.S. — declined to confirm or deny that it is considering a $600 million offering of new equity.

The number of people who believe paperless mortgages could be just a few years away from a 50% penetration of the market has grown in the last two years, according to a survey on the topic that is done roughly every other year.

What if something happened to you tomorrow? What if someone made you a job offer you couldn’t refuse? What if you decided it’s time to retire? Or just can’t take it any more?

LRG Capital Real Estate Partners, San Francisco, plans to launch a new investment fund targeting institutional investors that want to buy undervalued commercial properties in the Bay area.

A senior regulator said banks must better align capital buffers with commercial real estate concentrations, and he recommended a smaller role for auditors in setting loan-loss reserves.

Arch Bay Capital, an investor and manager of delinquent mortgages, appears to have scuttled — for now — its plans to enter the origination business, according to industry officials that have worked with the firm.

Big banks are showing more interest in outsourcing, according to Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Jacksonville, Fla.

BB&T Corp. cautioned that it could experience "elevated charge-offs" in the third quarter as it gets more aggressive in disposing of bad loans.

Residential loan applications fell 8.9% last week but with purchase money loans taking up a slightly larger percentage of all new business, according to figures compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The nation's GSE regulator Wednesday voiced his concern about the slow pace of seller/servicers repurchasing problem loans from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, singling out the nation's megabanks for their poor performance in this area.

First American Title Insurance Co., Santa Ana, Calif., is merging its National Lenders Advantage and Equity Loan Services units into a new Mortgage Services division.

The Pennsylvania Credit Union Association has signed on with First Heritage Financial, LLC to help the state's CUs provide mortgage loans to their members.

CoreLogic and Blueberry Systems have formed a partnership to offer fraud prevention technology to lenders and servicers.

Australia's Macquarie Group will acquire Presidio Partners LLC, a San Francisco and Chicago-based firm that raises private capital for real estate transactions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

USA Federal Credit Union, a small CU chartered to serve Navy personnel in the San Diego area, said it will be bought by Navy Federal Credit Union, one of several bidders for the ailing institution.

Although refinancing has continued to be muted given all the post-downturn market conditions that counteract today’s rates, reaction to recent prepayment reports show some speeds are still surprising to the upside in some cases.

Independent mortgage banking firms earned an average profit of $917 per loan originated in the second quarter, a 51% increase from 1Q as production volumes increased and personnel costs fell.

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WASHINGTON—The Federal Housing Administration is opening the door for conventional borrowers with negative equity to refinance into government-insured loans.The agency recently issued guidelines for its FHA Short Refinance Program, which requires investors to accept writedowns on first and second mortgages (if necessary) to a combined loan-to-value ratio of 115%.

Mortgage insurer Radian Group said its inventory of delinquent loans has fallen for eight consecutive months, but expressed concerns regarding where the trend might be headed in the fourth quarter.