Underwriting

Despite claims that digitizing the mortgage process will require less human capital, consumer desires for people on the other end of the phone or computer will keep mortgage loan officers in demand for the foreseeable future.

Mortgage application volume increased 4% from one week earlier even as interest rates rose during the period, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

BankUnited said that its fourth-quarter earnings increased 12% from the same period in 2015, to $63.3 million, as strong gains in interest income more than offset rising expenses and a sharply lower gain on sales of loans.

BOK Financial was victimized by the effect of rising interest rates in the fourth-quarter profit, as losses on the company's hedge positions resulted in a profit decline.

The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization has extended the comment period on its proposed standard regarding the maintenance and sharing of commercial and multifamily rent-roll information.

Appraisal management companies must self-regulate their prices unless they want the government to do it for them.

Wells Fargo & Co. charged some homebuyers fees to extend promised interest rates when the bank failed to process their mortgage applications on time, ProPublica reported, citing four former employees from the Los Angeles area.

Associated Banc-Corp in Green Bay, Wis., reported a sharp increase in profits on a mix of higher fee income and lower credit costs.

Quarterly profit fell at SunTrust Banks in Atlanta as noninterest expense rose 8.4% and its loan-loss provision increased.

Mortgage interest rates dropped for the third consecutive week but remain higher than they were one year ago, according to Freddie Mac.

MGIC Investment Corp. reported net income of $107.5 million for the fourth quarter, an increase of nearly 5% over the $102.4 million earned in the same period of 2015.

Rising interest rates typically cause lenders to relax underwriting guidelines. The incoming administration promises to deregulate. Sounds like a combustible mix, but there's ample room to loosen credit without returning to the practices that caused the crisis.

The Justice Department claims the bank, which has received "satisfactory" ratings in its last four CRA exams, is failing to serve minority neighborhoods around Minneapolis.

While precise definitions vary, the term generally describes a smooth customer experience that may not even require a phone call or branch visit.

As mortgage rates continued to move higher, the share of home purchase loans began to increase in December, according to Ellie Mae.

The Michigan company expects a recently announced mortgage initiative to produce solid growth in 2017.

The default rate on first mortgages increased a single basis point in December compared with November but was down 13 basis points over the same month last year, according to the S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices.

JPMorgan Chase's net mortgage banking revenue for the fourth quarter was $1.69 billion, an increase of just 1% over the same period in 2015.

The Seattle company warned that fourth-quarter profit could fall more than 80% from a year earlier.

Banks have started reconsidering how much they are willing to pay for low-income housing tax credits as expectations of a Trump tax cut surge, slowing down some projects already and threatening developers with heavier financing burdens.