Originations

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said his company was one of "many" broker/dealers that received a subpoena from the Federal Housing Finance Agency which recently launched an inquiry into private label securities purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Subprime residential lending is in vogue again, except that none of the firms funding the loans call the product "subprime." Oh, and there’s one other catch: loan volumes are extremely small, but the profit margins are through the roof.

The home purchase application component of the Mortgage Bankers Association's Market Composite Index reached its lowest point since December 1996 during the week ended July 9.

The American Bankers Association has opened the door for more of its members to sell residential mortgages to Wells Fargo Funding under a special pricing arrangement.

Internet retail lender Total Mortgage Services, Milford, Conn., said the TMS Funding wholesale division it has formally opened up to select brokers in 17 states plans to slowly and carefully expand to all but a handful of others in this country over a period of more than a year.

Days of preparation are never wasted. Planning and preparation are two keys to success that you absolutely cannot discount.But so often we are too busy to prepare. We are too busy to plan appropriately. Instead we do a lot of wishing. Right? If that's you, today is the day to wrest yourself from that stratum of success and begin to get ready for the next level.

The time for small business owners to start preparing for the changes coming under health care reform is right now, according to a financial planner. Actions taken today could save money down the road.

I received an interesting question from reader last week and I want to share it because she made an excellent point probably without even knowing it. She asks, "Sue you have your hand in so many different projects (yes I do write, speak, and teach in addition to my own reverse origination), how do you get it all done?" She goes on to say that she has a hard time just getting the few reverse mortgage applications that she has to closing. Great question!

TIAA-CREF has undertaken an initiative to increase the availability of U.S. Hispanics/Latinos to retirement planning information, which includes the creation of a Spanish-language website.

The Federal Housing Administration's efforts to shift the burden of supervising mortgage brokers to actual funders is creating a mini-boom in demand for brokers to bring in homebuyers and refinancing customers.

The American Bankers Association has opened the door for more of its members to sell residential mortgages to Wells Fargo Funding under a special pricing arrangement.

Senate Democratic leaders have rounded up three Republican votes and are close to securing passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform bill.

Essent Guaranty, which wrote its first mortgage insurance policy in the second quarter, said it has lined up $100 million of fresh capital, bringing its total equity commitments to $600 million.

Banks and mortgage funders are looking for more data to help them make lending decisions, beyond the simple matter of whether prospective borrowers pay their bills on time.

U.S. home prices rose 0.9% in May after a 1.3% monthly increase in April, according to the CoreLogic housing price index.

A substantial percentage of consumers who are becoming new renters are actually still in the market to purchase a home, according to a survey conducted by Relocation.com.

WASHINGTON-In passing a Federal Housing Administration reform bill, the House of Representatives approved an amendment that bans lenders from making FHA loans to borrowers who defaulted on their previous mortgage even though they had the capacity to make the payments.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency said it has issued 64 subpoenas to "various entities" as part of an inquiry into private-label securities purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with an eye toward the government recouping losses on nonprime assets.

The number of warehouse providers willing to extend credit to nonbanks has doubled in the past year, according to warehouse consultant Michele Perrin.

Standard & Poor's is introducing an index that measures liquid exposure to U.S. companies engaging in consumer lending and finance activities, including (but not limited to) mortgage real estate investment trusts, thrifts and mortgage finance companies.