In the eyes of some Federal Reserve watchers, Fed chief Janet Yellen has become a master of making every public appearance a bit of a Rorschach test, giving fans and critics alike just enough of what they want to hear to reinforce their pre-existing viewpoints. Her semi-annual Humphrey-Hawkins testimony on Fed monetary policy before Congress this week was another prime example of this, with Wall Street types hopeful of a rise in interest rates sometime later this year, and contrarians increasingly unconvinced and dismissive. For instance, labor markets are showing...

Depository institutions – along with the top tier of companies that service loans pooled in mortgage-backed securities by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae – continued to pull back from the market during the second quarter of 2015, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. Commercial banks, thrifts and credit unions serviced a total of $3.218 trillion of mortgage servicing rights connected with agency MBS as of the end of the second quarter. That was down 6.9 percent from the first quarter of 2015. Although depositories remain the dominant force in the agency MSR market, accounting for 64.2 percent of servicing on outstanding single-family MBS, nonbanks continued...[Includes four data tables]

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray tried to sooth industry concerns about regulatory enforcement of the controversial integrated disclosure rule immediately following its implementation on Oct. 3. Appearing before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Cordray amplified previous statements regarding compliance with the so-called TRID rule, which makes major changes to consumer disclosures under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. “We worked...

Three leading Democrats in Congress are pushing the Department of Housing and Urban Development to re-issue a request for comments regarding potential changes to the HUD-92900-A form. HUD proposed the changes in mid-May to little fanfare, though the members of Congress warn that the proposal will create a loophole giving “Wall Street banks a free pass at taxpayers’ expense.” The May proposal from HUD involves certifications on the HUD/VA Addendum to Uniform Residential Loan Application form. HUD proposed removing a loan-level requirement that FHA and Department of Veteran Affairs lenders certify that they haven’t been convicted of a violation of federal or state antitrust statutes within the past three years. In a letter sent to HUD this week, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-OH, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, said...

The mortgage lending industry, fresh off a successful appeal to the CFPB for an extension of the effective date of the pending integrated disclosure rule, has secured the introduction of another piece of legislation in the U.S. Congress that would provide lenders a “hold harmless” enforcement period under the new rule. S. 1711, a bipartisan bill sponsored by Sens. Tim Scott, R-SC, Joe Donnelly, D-IN, and others, would provide for a temporary safe harbor from the enforcement of the rule, from the effective date through Dec. 31, 2015, providing lenders are making good-faith efforts to comply with the rule. The measure is identical to H.R. 2213 introduced in May by Reps. Steve Pearce, R-NM, and Brad Sherman, D-CA. “This bill ...

While a number of structural issues continue to limit activity in the non-agency mortgage-backed security market, reform of the government-sponsored enterprises would dramatically help the sector’s recovery, according to officials at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. “Issuers and investors are not likely to build the infrastructure necessary for a vibrant private-label securities market until they have a better understanding of how the government’s role ...

Lending to veterans and members of the U.S. military is expected to trend up in the second half of 2015 as the economy improves further, wages rise and unemployment declines, predicts the country’s top VA lender. “We’re seeing increased activity in housing while house values have gone up modestly, which I expect will continue in the next couple of years,” said Stan Middleman, president and chief executive of Freedom Mortgage. It is a great time for veterans to purchase a home, Middleman said, and he would he like to see more vets become homeowners. However, despite the low interest rates, crisp and clear underwriting and no downpayment required, many veterans are still not taking advantage of the VA program as they should, he noted. Middleman feels he should advertise and market the VA product more. In the past seven months, Freedom Mortgage has added ...

A more subtle version of looking at redlining is becoming a major focus in fair-lending analysis, according to industry experts participating in a recent webinar sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance. The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act was created in 1974 largely as a tool to fight discriminatory redlining, a practice named for maps that some lenders developed that literally outlined in red the parts of the market where they would not do business. HMDA’s focus on mapping…

An estimated $95.9 billion of mortgages bigger than the traditional agency loan limit were produced during the first quarter of 2015, a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis reveals. Jumbo production – all single-unit mortgages with loan amounts exceeding $417,000 – was up 7.9 percent from the fourth quarter. That was slightly off the pace set in overall mortgage originations, which rose 12.9 percent from the previous quarter. Conforming-jumbo production was...[Includes three data tables]

Democratic leadership in the Senate and the House have introduced the Community Lender Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act of 2015 as an alternative to the GOP-sponsored regulatory relief bill approved by the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Most of the provisions in the Democrat legislation were proposed as amendments to the Senate bill and rejected by the Republican majority. The Democrat bill would grant qualified-mortgage status for loans held in portfolio, but only for smaller financial institutions. Banks and credit unions with less than $2 billion in consolidated assets which originate fewer than 2,000 mortgages per year could make loans that exceed the 43 percent debt-to-income ratio under the QM standard and still receive safe harbor status ...