Inside the Beltway

The mortgage industry saw a 4 percent drop in applications entering the month of November as rates ticked up to a new eight-year high, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending Nov. 2.

Average interest on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hit the highest mark since April 2010.

Read on to learn more information about changes in applications and interest rates.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently voted 5-0 to propose a rule that would require national consumer reporting agencies to offer free electronic credit monitoring services to active duty military members, implementing a provision of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act.

The rule would require consumer reporting agencies to notify active duty military members within 24 hours of any “material” additions or modifications to their credit files.

Read on to learn more details.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have collaborated to launch a centralized clearinghouse of online resources to assist lenders, servicers, housing counselors and other real estate professionals in serving limited English proficient (LEP) borrowers called Mortgage Translations.

The entities noted that the share of LEP borrowers in the mortgage market continues to grow, and is not expected to stop in the coming decades.

Read on to learn more about what resources are being offered through the clearinghouse.

In an effort to provide banks a common, credible and efficient compliance approach to cybersecurity and assessment, the American Bankers Association (ABA) and other financial trade groups recently unveiled a new cybersecurity profile under the direction of the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council.

Council representatives stressed the potential safety and soundness risks presented by cybercriminals which the new framework is designed to mitigate.

Read on to get more details about the intended benefits of the profile.

The Mortgage Bankers Association presented its new board of directors and announced a host of awards and designations at its annual convention in Washington D.C.

The board will be chaired by CMG Financial President and CEO Chris George and brings six new members to the 38-person board.

Read on for more details about the board, the awards handed out by MBA, the Open Doors Foundation and MBA education, as well as the new CMB designees.

Mortgage rates for 30-year mortgages hit the highest levels in more than seven years while 15-year fixed-rate mortgages reached their highest mark since April 2010.

The rate milestones came with a 1.7 percent seasonally adjusted drop in mortgage applications week-over-week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Associations (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending Oct. 5.

Read on to find out more details about the recent milestones and what they could mean for the foreseeable future.

Delinquencies are on the decline for the most part, according to analysts at the American Bankers Association (ABA) who expect that trend to continue. Bank card delinquencies saw the most significant drop while home equity loans stood as a notable outlier from the downward trend among delinquency categories.

The ABA’s Consumer Credit Delinquency Bulletin indicated that eight out of 11 categories the association tracks showed improvement or no change in the second quarter while two others saw only small increases.

Read on to get more details about the report’s findings.

The second annual J.D. Power 2018 U.S. National Banking Satisfaction Study ranked the six largest retail banks in the country in terms of convenience, digital offerings and checking account and credit card offerings.

JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank and U.S. Bank made up the top three, based on six factors intended to measure the quality of the customer experience they offer.

Read on to find out more about the study’s results.

Doubling the number of political commercials it has produced this year through partnerships with state trade groups, the American Bankers Association (ABA) recently revealed six new ads urging consumers in four states to tell their congressional representatives to support pro-growth economic policies.

The ads, developed through partnerships with the Florida Bankers Association, the Kentucky Bankers Association, the Nevada Bankers Association and the Texas Bankers Association, continue to promote Republican and Democratic candidates.

Read on to learn more about the ads and the association’s recent political activism.

PenFed Credit Union, the nation’s second largest federal credit union, recently hired Winston Wilkinson as its executive vice president and president of mortgage banking. Wilkinson, who will report to PenFed President and CEO James Schenck, will lead the credit union’s largest business unit which has more than 500 employees and serve on PenFed’s 11-member executive team which sets the strategy, focus and execution for the entire organization.