BOK Financial, Tulsa, Okla., reported first-quarter earnings of $83.6 million, up from 29% from a year earlier, as credit costs lowered and mortgage banking revenue soared.

New home sales in January and February were much higher than originally reported, taking some steam out of transactions for March, which fell 7% from the prior month.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is relying on an emphasis on standardized data to manage complaints it receives about mortgage industry participants and other rule making and regulatory activities.

Until recently, the deterioration of properties didn’t pique the interest of servicing agencies until it was clearly designated REO and, until recently, this was all well and good. But the winds have changed.

Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday morning that home prices fell in February for the sixth consecutive month to the lowest level since 2002.

At the first public meeting Monday of the reconstituted Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board, agency officials eased projections for future bank failures.

Randall Craig, a Toronto-based social media marketing expert, said marketing campaigns using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the like, can be measured through the following four approaches.

The Agoura Hills, Calif.-based risk mitigation firm has integrated Google Maps satellite images into FraudGuard to help lenders decrease loan processing time and quickly identify external issues with properties.

Sometimes I go in circles. I do marketing, my phone rings, I get busy, I stop marketing. I close loans, I realize my phone isn't ringing as much so I start all over. My new goal is to go in a straight line.

While it is evident that loans are receiving a great deal of scrutiny these days, it is also true that appraisal reports are generally viewed most closely for the value they recommend, not the detail they contain.

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

March went out like a lion in Illinois, where existing home sales hit their highest level in four years during the month and the median price snapped a 20-month streak of declines.

The 2.0 version of the HARP program is off to a strong start with the nation's five largest servicers gobbling up applications, HUD secretary Shaun Donovan told a Mortgage Bankers Association gathering Thursday morning.

Lenders are relying on technology to help with good-faith estimate compliance, but some loan origination system providers may have been caught off guard when the new GFE rolled out, said an executive with one of the settlement services providers.

Single point of contact requirements for servicers aren’t just another compliance burden, they’re an opportunity for improved margins and lower loss severity, according to Craig Focardi, a senior research director at consulting firm TowerGroup.

Mortgage vendor ISGN Corp. Tuesday named industry veteran Tim Anderson director of its corporate technology strategy.

Construction of new single-family homes fell flat in March after dropping 9% in February, according to government figures released Tuesday morning.

Technology vendor Fiserv has named an Ally Financial executive as its new chief information officer.

• FHA/IRS E-Sign
• Social Media Success
• Hardware Trends
• Multifamily Origination Tech

As depositories continue to balance the need for conserving resources with expanding their presence with branch locations, some technologists believe that video conferencing would likely become a bigger trend for mortgage originators.