Accused of redlining by regulators, First National Bank of Pennsylvania (FNB) has agreed to settle the case for $13.5 million, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the State of North Carolina announced Monday. FNB was involved in the case as a successor in interest of Yadkin Bank, which it acquired in 2017. The complaint alleges that, from 2017 through 2021, FNB failed to provide […]
Veteran mortgage executive James Seely has sued Guild Mortgage for allegedly failing to pay $750,000 in compensation after terminating his employment for cause by “manufacturing out of whole cloth spurious claims of Mr. Seely not working full time,” according to a recently filed lawsuit. “While we do not comment on pending litigation, Guild’s long-standing reputation […]
In a high-rate environment, Pennymac Financial Services delivered profits in 2023, mainly due to the performance of its servicing portfolio. That’s despite a net loss in the last quarter of the year attributable to the resolution of a long-standing arbitration process with Black Knight regarding its servicing technology and losses in mortgage servicing rights (MSR) fair value. “2023 was […]
United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) announced Wednesday that it’s allowing its broker partners to offer a temporary discount of 100 basis points (bps) for conventional rate-and-term refinances. The discount is valid on new loan locks through March 29. It’s not the first time that the Pontiac, Michigan-based lender has encouraged borrowers to refinance their loans. In December, […]
Two Harbors Investment Corp., a New York-based real estate investment trust, announced Tuesday its plan to launch a mortgage origination unit in the second quarter of 2024, less than a year after the company debuted in the servicing business by acquiring RoundPoint Mortgage Servicing Corp. in October 2023. But don’t expect the firm to compete with big players […]
Cincinnati-based First Financial Bank has agreed to direct $2.4 billion in the next five years for lending and investments to low- and moderate-income (LMI) clients and census tracts, with 30% of the total tied to mortgage lending. The initiative is part of a community benefits agreement with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), the parties announced Tuesday. The deal that runs through […]
Three years into its controversial ultimatum, United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) continues to engage in legal battles with its broker partners selling loans to rivals Rocket Mortgage and Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. UWM on Thursday when filed a lawsuit in a U.S. district court in Michigan against Atlantic Trust Mortgage Corporation, a Florida-based broker shop with 18 loan officers, per the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System […]
Fannie Mae has announced updates to its HomeReady product, including a temporary $2,500 credit for very low-income purchase borrowers to use for down payment and closing costs. Another step the government-sponsored enterprise took was to enhance the best efforts commitments on HomeReady loans. It allows lenders to lock in margins and reduce hedging costs. The enterprise […]
New Jersey-based TD Bank has decided to invest $10 billion in affordable homeownership initiatives by 2027, including providing loans and liquidity to the residential lending market. The investment represents half of the bank’s three-year Community Impact Plan announced Wednesday, which will direct $20 billion to lending, philanthropy, and banking access, among other initiatives, for the benefit of […]
Country Club Mortgage, a home lender based in California, has decided to lay off over 100 employees due to “facility closures,” documents sent to state regulators show. “This letter serves to give you an amended 60-day notice of permanent layoffs and facility closures effective Feb. 6, 2024,” Sherry Carson, human resources generalist at Country Club Mortgage, wrote in […]
Japanese homebuilder Sekisui House, Ltd. has struck a deal to acquire its U.S.-based peer M.D.C. Holdings, Inc. in an all-cash transaction that values the target at $4.9 billion, the companies announced Thursday. The acquisition turns Sekisui into the fifth largest homebuilder in the U.S as it expands the company’s presence to 15,067 combined home closings across 16 states. That’s […]
Mortgage rates at their lowest level in three weeks led to an increase in borrowers’ demand for home loans last week, spreading some optimism in the industry in the first few weeks of 2024. To prove it, analysts are already discussing a potential refi recovery. Overall, mortgage applications rose by 10.4% in the week ending Jan. […]
A Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) analysis has shown racial disparities in appraisers’ use of time adjustments, potentially harming borrowers of minority groups. The FHFA based its analysis on single-family housing data from the Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD), collected by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. A 5% sample of the UAD data was used, including the period between the third […]
Mortgage businesses at Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are now only a fraction of what they were in 2022. As a group, the trio originated about $80 billion in mortgages in 2023, down from nearly $218 billion the prior year – a $138 billion decline (63%). The downsized volume reflects two equally important […]
Guild Mortgage has filed a petition in a district court in Washington to confirm a $10.7 million award resulted from an arbitration dispute against three former employees accused of poaching when they transitioned to rival CrossCountry Mortgage. The case began in August 2021 when Guild filed a demand for arbitration claiming Christopher Flowers, Cory Flynn and Lisa […]
Rapidly expanding Cleveland, Ohio-based CrossCountry Mortgage (CCM) has struck a deal to acquire the smaller retail mortgage lender AmCap Home Loans and bolster its operations in Texas. In an exclusive interview with HousingWire, Ron Leonhardt, a former mortgage broker who founded CCM in 2003, confirmed conversations with the parties started years ago, although the transaction closed on Tuesday. Leonhardt first […]
Mortgage giant Mr. Cooper Group has named Mike Weinbach, a former Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase executive, as its new president. He will succeed Chris Marshall, who is retiring at the end of 2024 but will assist with the transition. Weinbach, 50, will be in charge of the company’s operations, which includes originations, servicing and technology, Mr. Cooper announced on […]
Ohio-based mortgage lender CrossCountry Mortgage has adopted the updated credit scoring model FICO Score 10 T to support origination of non-conforming loans and issue mortgage-backed securities (MBS), the company announced on Tuesday. The lender’s move follows Movement Mortgage’s decision in early October to become an “early adopter” of the updated credit scoring model that FICO […]
Top-15 U.S. mortgage lender loanDepot confirmed Monday morning that it is the industry’s latest cyberattack victim. The incident has brought loanDepot’s systems down. The California-based lender, which originated roughly $17 billion in mortgage loans from January to September 2023, said it has launched an investigation with the support of cybersecurity experts. It has also begun notifying regulators […]
Top-10 mortgage lender Guaranteed Rate has filed a lawsuit against retail rival New American Funding over poaching. But this isn’t your standard poaching lawsuit: G-Rate alleges that NAF has wooed at least 30 employees since early 2023 via illegal loan officer compensation practices. Despite the rise in poaching lawsuits in a competitive market, it’s the […]
