The volume of refinance originations may have dropped significantly during the first quarter of 2011, but refi transactions continued to account for a historically high share of new business, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. Lenders originated an estimated $235 billion in refinance loans during the first three months of this year, which represented 72.3 percent of all single-family mortgage production. That was one of the highest quarterly refi market shares ever, ranking behind the fourth quarter of 2010 and the first two quarters of 2009. Refi production volume was down 40.1 percent from the end of 2010, however... [Includes two data charts]

Credit card giant Discover Financial Services is adding mortgages to its menu of financial products and services with the acquisition of Home Loan Center, a subsidiary of Tree.com. The sale price for Home Loan Center, which operates as LendingTree Loans, is up to $56.0 million. LendingTree, a correspondent lender, originates and processes home loans in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The acquisition includes substantially all of HLC’s operating and related assets as well as LendingTree’s lead-generation system, adding a residential mortgage origination component to Discover’s direct lending system. Discover, a direct banking and...

Mortgage lenders that are anxious about complying with the call report requirements of the National Mortgage Licensing System might want to consider a new automated solution developed by LendingSpace, a Fulton, MD-based technology firm. “Lenders who find themselves using a patchwork of their existing technologies to meet these requirements will spend a great deal of time and resources to ensure impeccable compliance,” said Ravi Varma, CEO of LendingSpace. “With a click of a mouse, the Automated Mortgage Call Report function in our ComplianceOne suite gathers the information from the loan origination system, and formats it so that it’s ready for...

Conventional conforming mortgage production took the heaviest hit in new lending during the first quarter as all four corners of the single-family originations market recorded sharp declines, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. Originations of conventional mortgages that meet conforming loan limits sank 40.0 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010, hitting an estimated $213.0 billion. The conventional conforming market still had the biggest role in the market, accounting for 65.5 percent of new originations, but a sharp drop in refinance activity hit the sector hard. Government-insured lending was also... [Includes two data charts]

Industry representatives are making headway in obtaining clarification from the Federal Reserve on various aspects of the agency’s controversial regulation on loan originator compensation. But there are a number of key questions that still have to be addressed, and until they are, lenders need to proceed carefully, according to a top official at one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders. One area in which the industry needs clarification has to do with compensation based on “time spent” as it pertains to different loan programs and products, and whether compensation can be established on a loan-by-loan basis or by...

Florida. The state legislature recently passed SB 1613, which allows licensed loan originators to work as contract loan processors or in-house loan processors, but includes in-house loan processors in certain disciplinary provisions...

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will host workshops for directors of nationally chartered community banks and federal savings associations in New York at the Hilton New York, June 28-29, 2011...

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., as the receiver of Washington Mutual, earlier this month sued Lender Processing Services of Jacksonville, FL, and CoreLogic of Santa Ana, CA, and their corporate parents and affiliates for a combined $283.5 million, alleging gross negligence and breach of contract related to appraisals performed for hundreds of the defunct lender's mortgages between 2006 and 2008...

FHA endorsements fell 22.1 percent from the fourth quarter as the refinancing wave of 2010 ended, as did production in other channels in the first quarter of 2011. The FHA endorsed $57.6 billion in 1-4 family mortgage loans in the first quarter, including reverse mortgages, down from $74.0 billion the previous quarter. It lost some market share to VA, whose total originations were up 26.2 percent from the first quarter of last year. The agency reported a 33.8 percent increase in applications in March ... [includes one data chart and one graph]

The mortgage broker industry saw a huge decline in new origination volume during the first quarter of 2011 as lenders appeared to focus on shoring up their retail channels in the face of a major slowdown in new lending volume. A new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance reveals that the mortgage broker share of the market fell to a record low 7.1 percent during the first three months of 2011. Broker originations plummeted 59.6 percent from the fourth quarter to a record low of just $23 billion. In fact, the top three lenders in the market each generated more retail production than the entire broker channel did during... [Includes four data charts]