The supply of single-family home loan debt in early 2016 grew for the fourth consecutive quarter to hit $10.008 trillion, its highest level in three and a half years, according to Federal Reserve data released late last week. The first-quarter gain was a modest 0.2 percent from the end of last year, and a 1.5 percent increase from March 2015. But the servicing market is a slow-changing glacier, and steady increases over the past year are another indicator that the mortgage market has largely recovered from the housing recession. Most of the gain came...[Includes two data tables]
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Seneca Mortgage Servicing LLC, which entered the business just three years ago, has decided to outsource the monthly processing of loans to Nationstar, a sign that private-equity firms are no longer so enamored with the returns generated by mortgage servicing rights. According to a statement issued by Nationstar, it will service all of Seneca’s $50 billion portfolio and any rights Seneca might obtain going forward. Moreover, it will take control of the firm’s Depew platform in upstate New York. No terms were disclosed. However, according to interviews with servicing advisors, Seneca – whose backers include The Blackstone Group, EJF Capital and Arbor Commercial Mortgage – may not be...
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Mortgage lending industry representatives were told to keep their expectations in check when it comes to the forthcoming TRID integrated-disclosure rulemaking from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is expected sometime this summer, perhaps as early as late July. “Everybody in the industry cheered when the bureau announced this,” attorney Richard Horn, the former CFPB official who led the development of the TRID rule, said this week during a panel discussion at the American Bankers Association’s regulatory compliance conference in San Diego. “I think...
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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to develop another rule to resolve some of the mortgage industry’s problems with the CFPB’s integrated disclosure rule may provide some psychological relief for lenders. But it’s certainly not solving any of the problems they are struggling with right now, problems that continue to emerge as the months since implementation roll on. Among the host of concerns that have sprung up related to the Truth in Lending Act/Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Integrated Disclosure Rule – TRID – is the raft of issues having to do with settlement agents. Delivering a presentation at the American Bankers Association’s regulatory compliance conference this week, Richard Horn, a former CFPB official, said...
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Fannie Mae has postponed the anticipated release of Desktop Underwriter 10.0, an updated version that included using trended credit data. Something went wrong during the testing phase, prompting the government-sponsored enterprise to announce last week that the program will not be implemented during the weekend of June 25 as planned. Fannie apologized to its customers noting that it would be prudent to delay the release until the issues are addressed. Fannie isn’t...
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Millennials are in the dark when it comes to knowing about mortgage resources, lenders said, and recent research shows that there are millions of millennials who could afford to buy a home today but don’t know it. “The problem isn’t always that they don’t qualify or have the credit scores, the big problem is they don’t know it,” said Rob Chrane, CEO of Down Payment Resource, speaking on a mortgage panel at the National Association of Real Estate Editors conference in New Orleans last week. “At the same time, we know from our database there are almost 2,500 different programs out there that represent billions of dollars in forms of downpayment assistance and other aid.” Paul Anastos, president of Mortgage Master, a subsidiary of loanDepot, said...
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Mortgage lenders soon will be facing higher civil monetary penalties that may be imposed by federal agencies for violations of various lending, servicing and consumer financial protection laws and regulations, warned industry attorneys. As part of the budget bill signed into law last year, the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act (FCPIAA) requires federal agencies to adjust the civil penalty amounts they charge for inflation by July 1, 2016. This will be followed be regular adjustments by January 15 of every year. The adjustments must be...
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Two appraiser trade groups raised concerns this week that federal banking regulators are re-interpreting longstanding policy to exempt most of the mortgage market from appraisal rules. The American Society of Appraisers and the National Association of Independent Fee Appraisers published a white paper and wrote to leaders in Congress detailing positions taken by federal regulators regarding the application of appraisal standards included in the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act. Federal regulators are...
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