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Millennials are on the verge of becoming the largest cohort of homebuyers. If lenders want to gain and retain their trust, they must start by recruiting a younger, more diverse and gender-balanced workforce.

Despite the outcry prompted by lenders' commercials during Super Bowl 50, customer satisfaction surveys indicate borrowers are more than ready for the ease and convenience of digital options.

A number of factors, including the shift back to a purchase market and burgeoning Hispanic and millennial demographics, are expected to spur mortgage industry hiring across the board in 2016, with one major exception: appraisers.

The American Bankers Association has renewed its alliance with Freddie Mac to provide origination and servicing assistance to banks.

There has been a sharp decrease in the number of incoming appraisers, largely due to outdated and untenable certification requirements. Here's how to fix the situation.

A plan by the government-sponsored enterprises to begin collecting the new Closing Disclosure data is designed to promote Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's loan quality goals. But the initiative may also prompt broader use of e-signatures and paperless processing.

Corporate culture can be a powerful tool for a good leader — and a poison pill for a bad one.

Amid a renewed focus on improving customer service and the overall borrowing experience, lenders surveyed by National Mortgage News indicate a strong interest in customer-relationship management software, but remain tepid about electronic signatures.

The added clarity provided by the Federal Housing Administration's revised single-family handbook comes at the expense of lender flexibility to get loans qualified, including a popular workaround for borrowers with deferred student loan debt.

While regulatory pressures remain top of mind for the mortgage industry, lenders surveyed by National Mortgage News are shifting their attention from defensive-minded compliance initiatives to ones that improve companies' ability to compete.