Origination

With the second-quarter earnings season mostly done, financial services firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW) reports that mortgage bankers tracked in its coverage saw a 22 percent increase in volumes from the first quarter to the second. "We view the mortgage results for the banks that have already reported 2Q earnings as largely in line with expectations," KBW commented.

Walter Investment Management announced Monday that the company experienced a net loss of $12.9 million for Q2 2014. The company's net income was $45.0 million after adjustments made for goodwill impairment charges in the reverse mortgage segment and reductions in the company's servicing rights' fair value, regarding chances in valuation inputs.

The company responsible for one of the most widely used measures of credit health is making changes to its current model that could boost credit scores nationwide. While the changes may have a significant impact on approval rates for credit cards and auto loans, the effects will be more subtle for borrowers and lenders in the mortgage space, says Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for personal finance website Bankrate.com.

In California, JMAC Lending has expanded its operations with the launch of a new non-delegated correspondent platform.

According to data reported by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and compiled by Capital Economics, mortgage application volumes slipped an additional 3.4 percent in July following June's 0.1 percent decline. Declines were nearly even in both purchase loan volumes, which fell 3.6 percent, and refinances, which were down 3.3 percent.

Mortgage bankers group Lenders One released Tuesday the results of new study on loan officer retention conducted by Majestic Consulting. According to the results, most loan officers would be willing to leave a higher-paying position if they feel management at another company has a better grasp on fulfillment and business development.

The ability-to-repay and qualified mortgage (QM) rules that went into effect earlier this year are not having a significant impact on approvals of prime conforming residential mortgage loans, but they are impacting the jumbo and nontraditional loan markets, according to the July 2014 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices conducted by the Federal Reserve.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported a 0.5 percent increase in its Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) for the month of July, putting the index at 116.4. According to the group, the main force behind the increase was a rise in the number of jumbo adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) programs. Also contributing to the pickup was an increase in availability of high-balance FHA and VA loan programs.

Based on data from Bloomberg, investment bank FBR Capital Markets estimates issuance of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) last month came to approximately $90 billion, marking a "significant improvement" from June and May. However, year-to-date originations are at approximately $633 billion, and with the historically stronger summer months done, FBR expects "the strong pace set in July could slow materially in August, September, and beyond."

In Tennessee, Churchill Mortgage announced a partnership to bring Mortgage Harmony's HarmonyLoan Rate Reset product to Churchill's borrowers.