The Mortgage Bankers Association reported the largest increase in applications since June in its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending Sept. 15. Mortgage applications jumped 5.4 percent from the previous week’s results, which included an adjustment for the Labor Day holiday.

Members of the country’s two largest credit union trade organizations will vote on a proposed merger on Nov. 1, which would combine the Credit Union National Association and the National Association for Federally-Insured Credit Unions into one. 

A recent hearing on the Federal Reserve’s proposed rulemaking to implement the remaining provisions of the international Basel III agreement offered industry leaders a chance to testify in front of lawmakers regarding the measure, which the Fed voted to advance at its July 27 meeting. 

An internal review of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s supervision of First Republic Bank highlights vulnerabilities in the company’s business model and management strategies related to interest rate changes from 2018 until its failure in May. The report indicates a link between First Republic’s failure and that of two other banks in March. 

The Mortgage Bankers Association released a whitepaper for financial professions navigating the ever-changing mortgage lending landscape through the peaks and valleys in revenues and costs, as well as the ever-winding regulatory river through the mortgage marketplace. 

The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization recently published its new refence guide, which incorporates updates required for the Version 3.6 XML Reference Model.

The real estate finance industry’s standards organization, MISMO, is seeking nominations for qualified industry professionals to serve on either of the two MISMO Standards Governance Committees – the Residential Standards Governance Committee or the Commercial Standards Governance Committee.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s small-business lending rule, finalized in March, is the subject of a back-and-forth legal battle between the bureau and seven Kentucky state-chartered banks, one national bank operating in Kentucky and the Kentucky Bankers Association arguing the rule contains too many new data collection requirements and the bureau overstepped what Congress envisioned for such a rule when it approved the Dodd-Frank Act.  

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced it will hold additional stakeholder forums and listening sessions to gather public feedback on the agency’s plan to transition to a new credit scoring model for the government-sponsored enterprises – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.