“Suitability” could become a major mortgage industry issue in 2007 as consumer advocates and their allies try to push for inclusion of the controversial standard into anti-predatory lending laws, particularly if foreclosures associated with nontraditional mortgages begin...
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The Democratic take-over of the House could ironically boost the chances of a Bush administration housing initiative – modernization of the FHA program – according to some observers. It could also bring new momentum to the long-stalled effort to draft new...
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Wells Fargo climbed into the lead as the top mortgage servicer in the U.S. during the third quarter of 2006 through a combination of strong origination activity and timely bulk acquisitions. With the U.S. home mortgage market surging over the... [Includes 1 full page chart and 1 graph]
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It’s starting to look like a land rush in reverse in the subprime market, where a growing number of firms are looking for ways out of a business that has seen dramatic margin compression and declining production volume. NetBank this week announced that it is...
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Fannie Mae is taking on more risk in the form of ARMs and negative amortization loans to expand its presence in the marketplace.Adjustable-rate mortgages accounted for approximately 20 percent of Fannie’s conventional single-family mortgage purchases for the...
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Federal banking and thrift regulators will be paying closer attention to discretionary pricing, loan distribution, and “flexible” underwriting in upcoming fair lending examinations to determine whether the unexplained gaps in rate-spread lending to minority and white...
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Federal financial regulators want banks and thrifts to begin reporting the volume of mortgage loans on their books that have negative amortization features. Under proposed revisions to bank call reports and thrift financial reports, all lenders would have to...
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When Washington Mutual decided to exit the correspondent market earlier this year, many in the market took the lending giant’s move as a sign that the channel was not profitable enough. But correspondent lending is alive and well, and companies such as...
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Mortgage groups have raised a modest uproar over Fannie Mae’s new patent for a mortgage design system, but that may only be a hint of the government-sponsored enterprise’s inventive capacity. Among the six patents the GSE currently holds is one for an electrical...
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