Mortgages

Late last week, I talked to one mortgage analyst who said some firms he’s looked at earned more money in the first quarter than they did all of last year. That’s great news for the mortgage industry, but of course this one anecdote does not apply to all.

MGIC Investment Corp., the nation’s largest mortgage insurer in terms of policies-in-force, posted a $20 million loss for the first quarter, an improvement over the $34 million it dropped in the year-ago period.

Raj Date, the deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said the agency wants to avoid creating "disincentives" for mortgage lenders and banks as part of the qualified mortgage rule.

More banks such as Puget Sound Bank, Umpqua Holdings and Wintrust Financial are reaching an inflection point for credit where bad assets are again a mere blip on the radar.

More light has been shed in the past week on two recent notable deals in mortgage-related securities markets and their potential ramifications.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency closed the $51.9 million-asset Fort Lee Federal Savings Bank. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. entered into a purchase agreement with Alma Bank in Astoria, N.Y., for $15.7 million of the failed thrift's assets.

Whole Loan Capital, LLC, New York, is in the market with a $4.8 billion 'flow' servicing deal that will be sourced through a handful of different lenders.

It's nice to know there's one sector of the mortgage business that's hot. In fact, it may be overheating (does anyone want to say bubble?). It's the agricultural mortgage sector. Now, before you dismiss this niche as insignificant, read this.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau poked its thumb in the eye of residential loan officers originating mortgages for depositories.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau shut the door on states issuing transitional licenses to bank loan officers who seek work for an independent mortgage banking or brokerage shop.

In the recently released CFPB enforcement guide, the newly formed agency clearly announced that it expected lenders to begin to institutionalize compliance to enhance monitoring, training and avoidance of errors and complaints. Federal agencies are already beginning to internalize this self-policing perspective.

A delinquent loan currently takes approximately one year to become a foreclosure because of "extremely long" processing timelines, Sharga continued. Then, it takes anywhere from 500 to 700 days, depending upon whether the state is judicial or nonjudicial, for the foreclosure to become REO.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development indefinitely debarred three Florida loan officers and a Pittsburgh title agent following their criminal convictions for defrauding elderly borrowers, mortgage lenders and the Federal Housing Administration.

Delinquency rates in the fourth quarter of 2011 fell across all loan categories the trade group monitors, including credit cards, auto and home loans, the American Bankers Association reported.

Joseph Smith, the man responsible for ensuring that five of the nation's largest banks comply with the massive multi-state mortgage servicing settlement, has a stark message for the five banks involved: make sure your internal review teams are independent and thorough.

Edward DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said he is "deeply concerned" about underwater borrowers, but added that forbearance plans and short sales already serve as forms of principal reduction without saddling taxpayers with further losses.

Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee have made it clear they believe the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is already too big and needs to be cut down to size.

Fannie Mae guaranteed $7.1 billion of new multifamily MBS during the first quarter, its best issuance volume since the advent of the credit crisis four years ago.

It's no secret that over the past three years the megabanks have run screaming from the third-party lending sector, abandoning correspondent lenders and loan brokers alike. Bank of America and TPO: Gone. Citigroup and TPO: gone. Ally Financial: Just about gone. But there's a growing trend of mid-sized and regional banks that see a huge opportunity in wholesale and correspondent.

Between everything you do - family, friends, hobbies, work, play, lessons, school, well, you name it - you probably don’t have one spare minute in your life.