CitiMortgage this week paid in excess of $122.8 million to the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund as part of its agreement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Justice to settle alleged violations of the False Claims Act. The payment to the FHA insurance fund is part of the $158.3 million settlement, which CitiMortgage agreed to in order to resolve charges of submitting false certifications to HUD regarding its compliance with FHA’s direct endorsement lender rules and endorsement of poorly underwritten loans for FHA insurance. These violations allegedly occurred between ...

The FHA’s seriously delinquent rates and early payment defaults went virtually unchanged in the second quarter of 2012 from the previous quarter, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s latest report on single-family programs covered by the FHA insurance fund. FHA data showed that the seriously delinquent rate for insured single-family mortgages (excluding streamline refinances) held at last quarter’s level of 9.4 percent, which is 1.4 percent higher than this period a year ago. The report attributed the elevated level to two factors. The first is the persistency of loans in 90-day delinquency as lenders try ...

The antiquated backbone of the FHA’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program will soon be history with the official launch of HERMIT on Oct. 9. HERMIT, or the Home Equity Reverse Mortgage Information Technology, is a second generation, web-based automated system, designed to improve the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s ability to track and monitor its HECM portfolio in real time. The system also automates the payments of insurance claims while increasing efficiency and mitigating risks to the FHA insurance fund. HERMIT consists of a servicing module and an accounting module to ...

Fixed-rate mortgages comprised most of August’s FHA production, which totaled $22.1 billion, up 13.2 percent from July and 37.9 percent from a year ago, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis of FHA data. FRMs accounted for 98.9 percent of new loans with FHA insurance in August. In-house originations made up 79.6 percent of new endorsements while purchase loans accounted for 56.1 percent of FHA originations during the month. Wells Fargo is the only top FHA lender to exceed the billion-dollar mark. In fact, the bank reported $2.2 billion in new FHA originations, 76.0 percent of which were produced in-house. The purchase mortgage share of Well’s total FHA originations was ... [2 charts]

A proposed move by Fannie Mae to cap its loan purchases from new lenders and servicers contingent on the lenders’ net worth, among other factors, is rife with unintended consequences and should be examined closely before the company takes final action, say industry officials. A spokesman for the government-sponsored enterprise confirmed that Fannie is looking to change how it conducts business with “unfamiliar” lenders in response to the “significant contraction” among the correspondent buyers in the secondary market. The consequence of the contraction has led to growth in the number of lenders seeking to do business directly with the GSE. “Many of these newly approved lenders are...

The new “framework” governing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac repurchase demand activity may have a relatively modest impact on an issue that has been a major factor in the mortgage market over the past few years. Analysts suggest that lenders will be cautious about changing origination strategies that have focused on minimizing buyback risk until they see how the government-sponsored enterprises implement the new policy. Many observers remain concerned about how the GSEs will respond to ongoing pressure from their regulator – and the Office of the Inspector General – to ...

Mortgage banking operations affiliated with banks and thrifts sold a hefty $360.0 billion of home loans during the second quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call report data. While that marked one of the busiest markets since the end of 2010, volume was down 3.9 percent from the first three months of the year. Secondary marketing gains account for the lion’s share of mortgage banking profits as lenders do not recoup enough in origination fees to ... [Includes one data chart]

A growing number of market indicators suggest that the U.S. housing market has bottomed out and is on the way back and perhaps even beginning to drive economic activity. “Housing, once the Achilles’ heel of the U.S. economy, is starting to look like a source of strength in a recovery that has lost its vigor as well as still facing significant roadblocks,” said Celia Chen, senior director at Moody’s Analytics, in a new analysis. “That housing is now a bright spot speaks more about the weakness of the ...

Homebuyers are increasingly using mortgages instead of cash to purchase homes, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. The share of non-cash financing methods for home purchases has increased significantly in 2012 as borrowers take advantage of low interest rates. Overall, the share of non-cash financing for home purchases increased from 65.9 percent in January to 68.9 percent in August, based on the three-month moving average. The increased use of ...

Unreasonably tight mortgage lending standards, fueled by lenders’ and regulators’ extreme distaste for risk, are dampening home sales and some flexibility is needed to drive home sales and job creation, according to a new survey by the National Association of Realtors. The survey analyzed credit scores and loan performance for both conventional conforming and FHA-VA loans and suggested returning to reasonably safe and sound lending standards to give home sales a much-needed jolt. Existing home sales should ...