Mortgage

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.

Consumer experience is becoming a greater priority than perhaps ever before in the mortgage industry and there is no shortage of opinions on the best approaches to improving how lenders interact with the people they serve.

Total Expert CEO Joe Welu founded the company in 2012 with the idea that consumer relationship management systems had room for improvement in that regard, which led him to develop a marketing operating system, designed to deliver a modernized, personalized experience for consumers.

Find out what Welu believes is essential to delivering the best customer experience possible.

Policymakers and mortgage industry participants may benefit from the first public release of loan-level data collected by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Housing Finance Agency.  The information includes insights about borrower experiences when getting a residential mortgage compiled quarterly in the agencies’ National Survey of Mortgage Originations (NSMO).

The NSMO is a component of the National Mortgage Database, which was launched in 2012 as the first comprehensive repository of detailed mortgage loan information based on borrower experiences obtaining a residential mortgage.

Find out more details about the publication of the survey data.

Ellie Mae President and CEO Jonathan Corr told Dodd Frank Update that the key to the company’s success is continually identifying ways to apply the latest advancements in technology to help lenders stay on top of shifting regulatory standards and close mortgages with greater efficiency, in terms of time and money, during the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual conference.

Such innovations are laying the groundwork for the future of eClosings, he said.

Find out how his company is looking to continue its pattern of staying one step ahead of the curve from a mortgage technology angle.

Through an expanded internal review of a software error that led to hundreds of denied mortgage modifications and subsequent foreclosures, Wells Fargo determined that the glitch had a wider reaching impact than previously thought.

The company disclosed in its recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the error resulted in more wrongly denied mortgage modifications and more wrongful foreclosures than previously indicated.

Find out more about what the company told Dodd Frank Update it planned to do to redress affected borrowers.

Multifamily lending caps for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will remain $35 billion apiece in 2019, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently announced.

The agency also detailed new requirements for certain loans to be excluded from the cap.

Read on to get more details about how the cap is determined and what loans qualify for exclusion.

The prevailing theme of the annual Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) convention this year was the push to make the widespread adoption of digital mortgages and eClosing a reality in the coming year.

First American Mortgage Solutions rolled out digital solutions across the mortgage lifecycle at the MBA convention, promising clients the ability to adopt a digital mortgage process immediately.

Find out more about how the company’s latest development could contribute to the expanding reach of eClosing capabilities.

A study analyzing market share growth among fintech mortgage lenders indicated that such entities process transactions significantly faster than traditional lenders, and tend to be less prone to default.

The National Bureau of Economic Research found that fintechs process mortgage applications about significantly faster than traditional lenders.

Find out more about the study’s findings and what it could say about where the industry is headed.

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.

To settle claims that it abused its status as a direct endorsement lender with the Department of Housing and Urban Development by knowingly approving substandard loans for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insurance, Universal American Mortgage Company LLC agreed to pay $13.2 million to the United States, according to the Department of Justice.

The company, operating as Eagle Home Mortgage, was charged with violating the False Claims Act by falsely certifying that it complied with FHA mortgage insurance requirements in connection with loans it endorsed between Jan. 1, 2006, and Dec. 31, 2011.

Find out about how the company was able to skirt FHA oversight and the potential repercussions of such a practice.