Mortgages

HECM lenders and originators need to be increasingly proactive about reporting potential fraud and aware of how best to identify and report it if they want to mitigate potential indemnification and compliance risk, a special agent from HUD IG's office told attendees at a National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association meeting Tuesday.

While facing continued pressure from its largest investor for a management shakeup, CoreLogic expects to benefit from continued mortgage refinancing activity, internal cost cutting and the introduction of new products.

Freddie Mac purchased $37.6 billion of residential loans from its seller/servicers in February, a 10% increase from the prior month, and a sign perhaps that Bank of America's recent decision to quit Fannie Mae is helping Freddie.

Madison Realty Capital has provided a $14.5 million bridge loan to help a borrower avoid foreclosure and complete development of a 90,000 square-foot project in Kew Gardens, N.Y.

As an outsource provider of increasingly commoditized loss mitigation tools and asset preservation services, having the right customer service philosophy may be the only deciding factor to our clients versus the competition.

It appears the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will revisit the issue of loan officer compensation - and maybe even in a way that benefits nonbank LOs. The whole issue is too early to predict, and we suggest you visit the main National Mortgage News website for a just breaking update.

The future is looking better in California as pending home sales increased in February for the second straight month, according to the state association of Realtors.

Wells Fargo & Co., the nation's largest residential lender, is trying a new twist on long-controversial downpayment assistance programs, which give money to prospective borrowers who otherwise could not afford to buy homes.

Bank of America is striving to make the short sales process more efficient with a stated goal of dramatically increasing the number of these pre-foreclosure transactions this year.

Five years after two big credit union failures left it with 1,700 southwest Florida properties, the National Credit Union Administration is continuing to receive declining prices for hundreds of properties on the depressed local market, according to a new internal study released last week by the agency's Office of Inspector General.

For smaller companies, social media is a marketing equalizer versus larger competition. The question has been are they taking advantage of it and the follow up is if they are, are they doing it effectively?

Investors who purchase distressed loans at a discount are among those in a good position to sense how problem assets might best be resolved, and one of these players believes more aggressive refis and mods and fewer government constraints on lending could help.

The National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association has raised the possibility of creating a hybrid reverse mortgage loan with members of the White House staff, Peter Bell, its president and CEO told attendees at the group's eastern regional meeting in New York.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has ordered AmericaHomeKey, Inc., to immediately stop making FHA-insured mortgages and fined the Dallas-based lender $268,000.

Contracts to purchase previously owned homes eased by half a point in February on a sequential basis, but rose 9% compared to the same month last year, according to new figures released by the National Association of Realtors.

It is hard to deny Richard Cordray's hiring to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau nearly four months ago is a flash point in continuing debates over regulatory appointments and implementing the Dodd-Frank Act.

New government aid programs for troubled homeowners are forcing cost-cutting banks into a tricky balancing act.

We all wish we could have just stayed in bed some days, and Bank of America officials have had more than their share of those days in the past week.

The CMBS market paralleled broader markets last week with buyers preparing for quarter end. The spreads were roughly unchanged week-over-week as trading volume slowed, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts.

Who says a consumer with a low FICO score can't get a mortgage? A recent survey conducted by National Mortgage News found five lenders that are willing to extend credit to borrowers with FICOs of 600 or less. The three lenders with the lowest FICO scores include TD Banknorth Mortgage, Embrace Home Loans, and Compass Bank.