Mortgages

Mortgage banks may soon focus more on a minority borrower group they may have overlooked. A recent study found Chinese-Americans hold almost no consumer debt outside of typical mortgage loans, indicating these borrowers are a mortgage lender/servicer’s dream customer.

Clayton Holdings, Shelton, Conn., Tuesday announced the formation of a new securitization group to aid the industry in what it hopes will be a revival of the private label MBS market.

SG Premier Lending Group Inc., Santa Barbara, Calif., has ended its marketing relationship with RPM Mortgage and is now providing direct lending and mortgage brokerage services on both residential and commercial properties in California.

Bank of America said it is receiving more buyback requests for older vintages of loans from Fannie Mae and plans to contest some of these claims regarding breaches of representations and warranties.

The existing home market in the Baltimore, Md., area was basically flat in September, with both sales and prices rising by the thinnest of margins.

Freddie Mac economists are expecting a surge in refinancings during the fourth quarter and recently increased their origination forecast for the period by nearly 70%.

Fannie Mae's recently priced $577 million multifamily DUS REMIC highlights moves the agency is making to court an agency CMBS investor base that appears to be broadening as activity has subsided somewhat in the CMBS conduit market.

There is a tool available from the federal government that anyone in the mortgage sales process, from company owner down to the individual sales person can use to help formulate their marketing plans for both the near and distant futures.

Realtors are beginning to find that the lower GSE loan limits, which became operative Oct. 1, are having a negative impact on both homebuyers and sellers.

Interactive Mortgage Advisors, Denver, is auctioning off a $57 million portfolio of bulk servicing rights for an undisclosed seller.

Examiners from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may look the same, but they won't necessarily see the same. The bureau is employing many of the same examiners -- and similar methods -- that the banking regulators have used for years to conduct exams, according to the CFPB's supervision and examination manual released last week.

Bank of America marked down the asset value of its residential servicing portfolio by a stunning 36% in the third quarter, but managed to post mortgage banking income of $1.8 billion during the period.

CitiMortgage and HUD's Office of Inspector General are at loggerheads over the proper way to vet at-risk borrowers for the Federal Housing Administration's short sales program.

A new collaboration between FICO and CoreLogic, two of the nation’s largest risk scoring data providers, plans to upgrade existing mortgage credit risk scoring models and consequently pave the way for broader access to multiscore rating benchmarks.

Citigroup reported a 50% jump in residential mortgage originations in the third quarter along with a large writedown related to mortgage servicing rights.

Historically low interest rates sparked an increase in refinance mortgage applications that helped Wells Fargo originate $89 billion in new residential loans during the third quarter of 2011. But troubled existing loans continue to impact results, with a 61% increase in Wells Fargo's mortgage repurchase provision.

Standard & Poor's today cut its projection of U.S. CMBS issuance in 2012 to $35 billion from $45 billion. That would translate to flat growth from this year's estimate. The agency reduced its forecast thanks to three consecutive months of rising spreads, an uncertain economic outlook and a slowdown in origination by lenders.

Master servicers have been instrumental in dealing with the robosigning debacle in existing securitization deals, said participants at Information Management Network's ABS East Conference on Sunday.

MADISON, Wis.-Credit unions need to make even stronger efforts to ramp up mortgage loans, according to one analyst.

The question of what should be done with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is drawing wildly different opinions.