Risk management

Despite being introduced to the market with great fanfare, Fannie Mae's 3% down payment mortgage offering has yet to gain much traction with lenders and consumers.

Freddie Mac's second-quarter single-family funding was the strongest it's been in a year, positioning the company to supplant the coming drop in refinancing with purchase mortgages.

Regardless of recent activity, marketing services agreements can be legal if lenders find the proper formula to follow.

Home Affordable Modification Program denial rates are still high, but the Treasury Department and top mortgage servicers contend that the numbers have improved.

The Federal Housing Administration is expected to rebuff a government watchdog report that blasted down payment assistance programs. The report has raised concerns that mortgage lenders would have to indemnify FHA for past loans, and that housing finance agencies would have the programs restructured.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is still not producing enough adequately-trained examiners necessary to monitor Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to an inspector general report.

The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program is renewing calls for further investigation of servicers it claims may be denying too many Home Affordable Modification Program applications.

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors recently challenged college students to examine how community banks survived the financial crisis, and the contest highlighted innovative strategies used by Main Street banks such as Bank of American Fork in Utah.

The government-sponsored enterprises are buying conforming mortgages with as little as 3% down, but the new policy can't improve the housing market by itself.

Signs of optimism are growing for acquisition, development and construction loans as banks hone strategies in a market transformed by the crisis.

The range of loan products offered by mortgage lenders and investors has been narrow since the housing crisis, but a few underserved niches are starting to make a comeback.

The rate of mortgage applications with defective information fell in June, reversing the upward movement from earlier this year, according to First American Financial.

The bankruptcy of Wingspan Portfolio Advisors epitomizes the existential crisis facing default servicing. This once-thriving sector of the mortgage industry now finds itself declining in lockstep with the drop in loan delinquencies and foreclosures.

Ellie Mae will add new integrations of Fannie Mae's automated loan review technology to its loan origination system to help lenders ensure loans remain eligible for sale throughout the underwriting process and eliminate surprises at the end.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new integrated disclosure regulations could pose problems for warehouse line providers along with their mortgage lender clients.

Bankers were pleased with the dramatic leap in home lending last quarter, but they cautioned that volume will slow in the second half as rate increases curb refinancings, nonbanks provide stiffer competition, servicing costs remain high and underwriting standards change.

WASHINGTON — The Senate Finance Committee voted Tuesday for a measure that would extend a temporary 10-basis point hike in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantee fees for an additional four years.

From CFPB and TRID to QM and ATR, the barrage of new abbreviations emanating from the Dodd-Frank Act has only been matched by the enormity of the changes it made to the mortgage industry. Here are 10 ways that the landmark financial reform legislation has reshaped the mortgage industry since becoming law five years ago.

Fannie Mae has priced what it expects will be its final fixed severity deal.

Freddie Mac is expanding its risk-sharing efforts meant to protect taxpayers and potentially prepare the $9.4 trillion U.S. home-loan market for its future.