Aggregate mortgage banking earnings increased sharply in the first quarter of 2010, but the overall numbers were heavily swayed by a huge turnaround at just one company, according to a new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. A diverse group of 22 lenders that includes nine of the top 10 mortgage originators in the market posted a combined $5.835 billion in mortgage banking earnings during the...
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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac officials believe that collecting more data sooner in the mortgage process and validating it up front are keys to improving loan quality and reducing the cost of failed loans that is eventually paid by lenders and investors. Data quality is very important for the government-sponsored enterprises and the mortgage industry, said Charles Coulter, vice president for strategic...
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Fannie Mae’s efforts to ratchet up the quality of new mortgages it purchases are placing a bigger burden on lenders, but that’s giving at least one service provider a chance to take advantage of a market opportunity. Fannie’s Loan Quality Initiative, launched toward the end of February to improve compliance with the company’s underwriting and eligibility guidelines and to mitigate lenders’ repurchase risk...
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As lenders grow more aware of the various techniques and strategies used in mortgage fraud and misrepresentation, perpetrators are also improving on their practices to make them more difficult to detect. As new frauds emerge daily, the industry must react “in real time,” said the Mortgage Asset Research Institute in its latest report on mortgage fraud. The standard for lending due diligence must be...
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Lenders that want to be serious about eliminating fraud losses from their operations need to ingrain their detection systems early in the process and pay careful attention to the results they are getting, industry experts say. The mortgage industry has traditionally taken a reactive approach to fraud issues, but to tackle the problem most effectively, the effort has to start before the loan is funded, said...
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Across-the-board decreases in delinquency rates may have signaled more effective loan modification efforts in early 2010, but even with signs of improvement, the pool of distressed loans outstanding is still a significant chunk of the mortgage market. Lender Processing Services’ monthly breakdown of loan-level mortgage data and performance trends on more than 40 million loans showed that total...
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Mortgage Builder, a provider of loan origination software, says an increase in purchased software versus software-as-a-service might be a sign of market stabilization. “We have seen increasing interest from companies wanting to own and manage their LOS system independently, and that is a reversal over the previous trend toward SaaS,” said Keven Smith, Mortgage Builder’s president and CEO...
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