Tag Archives: Wells Fargo

Mortgage origination was up in the third quarter, and it looks like there's a little more room at the top.

Government agencies are continuing their regulatory investigation of mortgage activities at Wells Fargo and Wachovia, according to a report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Wells Fargo absorbed Wachovia in 2008 when Wachovia's shaky mortgage portfolio threatened the bank's soundness. The government is looking into activities regarding mortgage origination and securitization, including risk disclosures at Wachovia.

The U.S. government is violating the terms of the national mortgage settlement with its lawsuit against Wells Fargo, attorneys for the bank argue. In a motion filed in a U.S. District Court, attorney Douglas Baruch says the settlement "wiped the slate clean for Wells Fargo in terms of facing any further liability to the United States (except in carefully crafted, narrow circumstances) for a wide range of Wells Fargo conduct relating to the bank's Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage loan portfolio, among other areas."

Wells Fargo has issued thousands of refund checks to customers who paid unnecessary mortgage fees, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.

By clarifying the qualified residential mortgage (QRM) and QM (qualified mortgage) rules, regulators could attract private investors back into the mortgage market, Michael Held, president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, told the audience at the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Annual Conference and Expo in Chicago Monday.

After jumping 11 points in three months, builder confidence inched up one point in October to 41, remaining at its highest level since June 2006, the National Association of Home Builders reported Tuesday, matching economist expectations. The October boost was due entirely to a surge in homebuyer traffic in October, as other elements of the index were flat from September. The traffic index├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┬Øwhich had been revised downward in September to 30, from an originally reported 31├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┬Øleapt to 35, its highest level since April 2006.

Increased mortgage-related revenue pushed both Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase to record quarterly profits in 3Q 2012, the banks reported.

Wells Fargo faces federal charges for alleged misconduct and fraud related to its role as a direct endorsement lender for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) over a span of more than 10 years. The civil lawsuit was filed Tuesday in a Manhattan federal court and alleges Wells Fargo falsely certified the credit and underwriting quality of thousands of FHA loans it originated which later defaulted, costing the federal agency hundreds of millions of dollars.

Wells Fargo has been ramping up its lobbying activities over the past several years. After spending just $620,000 on lobbying in 2002, a decade later the bank's spending is in the millions, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Housing followed finance as the second-most lobbied issue by Wells this year. In fact, the Housing Finance Reform Act of 2011 continues to be one of the top lobbied bills by the bank: Wells mentioned the bill in four reports throughout 2011, making the bank one of the most active clients for that piece of legislation.

Multifamily mortgage origination saw a major year-over-year increase in dollar volume in 2011, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported.