General World News

Mortgage market consolidates around largest nonbank firms: Fitch

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The largest U.S. nonbank mortgage lenders continue to gain market share as the industry consolidates and a number of smaller players exit the space due to a lack of strong franchises to retain sufficient volume, Fitch Ratings reported Tuesday. Fitch expects additional consolidation in the industry as profitability remains constrained by a challenging origination environment.  […]

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US House Expected to Pass Bill Forcing Chinese Company to Give Up TikTok

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to approve legislation Wednesday that would force the popular TikTok video app to either separate from its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance or sell the U.S. version of the software. The bipartisan Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act “gives TikTok six months to eliminate foreign adversary […]

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Mortgage rates cool off ahead of inflation reading

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In anticipation of Tuesday’s inflation reading, mortgage rates eased compared to last week. HousingWire’s Mortgage Rate Center showed the average 30-year fixed rate for conventional loans at 7.08% on Tuesday, down from 7.17% one week earlier. At the same time one year ago, the 30-year fixed rate averaged 6.83%. Meanwhile, the 15-year fixed rate averaged […]

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Polly launches Lender Intelligence platform 

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Mortgage capital markets tech firm Polly rolled out its Lender Intelligence platform, which leverages data and analytics to drive margin expansion and cost reduction. The new platform will enable lenders to track their volume trends, see how their loan pricing compares to competitors and gain insights into loan origination profit margins, Polly stated. Lender Intelligence […]

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Fintech Maxwell launches POS feature that offers tailored workflows for lenders

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Wells Fargo-backed mortgage fintech Maxwell rolled out a point-of-sale (POS) feature that offers tailored workflows and integrations. The Blueprint Builder features more than 60 third-party integrations, allowing lending teams to connect with other pieces of their workflow, from credit and verifications to pricing and disclosures. Lenders can choose to integrate and configure many third-party services […]

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RON platform NotaryCam records strong growth in 2023

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Remote online notarization (RON) platform NotaryCam expanded its independent notary platform customer base by 46% in 2023, according to an announcement on Monday. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of title firm Stewart. In addition to expanding its notary platform customer base, NotaryCam also grew the number of loss-mitigation-related RON transactions it was part […]

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Remarks for Budget Press Call

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I’m pleased to speak to you today to announce and highlight President Biden’s Education Budget for Fiscal Year 2025. From day one, President Biden has fought tooth and nail to deliver the resources to our schools, colleges and universities – not only to recover from the pandemic, but to achieve academic excellence and position our […]

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HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge announces resignation

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Marcia Fudge, the 18th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), announced her resignation from office, according to an announcement released on Monday by HUD. Her last day will be March 22. Adrianne Todman, the current Deputy Secretary and HUD veteran, was named Acting Secretary. Fudge said that she felt “mixed […]

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Floify’s new platform aims to provide flexible pricing for mortgage lenders

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Digital mortgage automation solution provider Floify launched a mortgage point-of-sale (POS) platform for lenders. Configured to give independent mortgage banks, federally insured banks and credit unions the needed tools at an accessible price point, Floify Lender Edition aims to increase lender profitability through its automated processes and efficiency tools, the company said. Solutions within Floify […]

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Opinion: The baby boom wave is cresting

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Peak 65 serves as an historic demographic milestone of the new paradigm shift that is changing every aspect of the housing market, finance, retirement planning process and the fragile supply/demand balance of housing inventory for real estate at large. We are living in a watershed moment in history. The new paradigm brings into question many […]

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Rate lock volume rose going into the spring buying season

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The spring homebuying season kicked off with a monthly jump in purchase mortgage locks despite rising interest rates.  Rate lock volume rose 5% from January to February due to a notable 8.3% increase in purchase activity, data from Optimal Blue’s Originations Market Monitor report showed. The rise in purchase activity outpaced the decrease in refinancing […]

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‘Oppenheimer’ wins best picture at Academy Awards, Emma Stone takes best actress

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Los Angeles — “Oppenheimer,” a solemn three-hour biopic that became an unlikely billion-dollar box-office sensation, was crowned best picture at a 96th Academy Awards that doubled as a coronation for Christopher Nolan. After passing over arguably Hollywood’s foremost big-screen auteur for years, the Oscars made up for lost time by heaping seven awards on Nolan’s blockbuster […]

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Michigan Museum Reveals Complex Heritage of Cambodian Art

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New York — Six years ago, Nachiket Chanchani visited Angkor Wat for the first time. Inspired, the architectural historian began thinking about the relationship between the complexities of modern post-genocide Cambodia and the ancient temple complex. Chanchani, an associate art history professor at the University of Michigan, kept reflecting on Angkor Wat, juxtaposing the temple complex […]

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Will mortgage rates keep heading lower? 

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We survived jobs week and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell talking to Congress, with mortgage rates ending the week below 7%. But will mortgage rates keep heading lower? If so, what will this do to inventory levels? Let’s look at this week’s tracker data to get clues for the future. Mortgage rates and the 10-year […]

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‘Game of Thrones’ Makers Turn to Iconic Chinese Sci-Fi

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Paris — The makers of “Game of Thrones” return with “3 Body Problem,” the adaptation of an iconic Chinese sci-fi trilogy.   It premieres this weekend at the South by Southwest Festival in Texas before launching on Netflix on March 21.  Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, coming off their huge hit with “Game of Thrones,” […]

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‘There will be bank failures,’ Fed chief tells lawmakers

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In remarks made Thursday to the Senate Banking Committee this week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he expects some U.S. banks to fail in the coming months because of declining values and defaults in their commercial real estate loan portfolios. According to reporting by multiple outlets, including The Hill, Powell indicated that the risk […]

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Expert says women face unique retirement challenges: CNBC

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Women face a series of challenges that add up to make retirement prospects “pretty bleak,” including issues such as gender pay inequality, longer life spans and a lack of savings based on U.S. Census Bureau data. But Cindy Hounsell, founder and president of the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement, said during an event hosted […]

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Ex-Summit executive: I was fired after blowing the whistle on illegal recruiting methods

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A former top executive at Summit Funding has sued the lender, claiming he was wrongfully terminated after confronting the company’s leadership about allegedly illegal business practices involving its founder and president, Todd Scrima.  Ex-chief growth officer Brian Mitchell accuses Summit and Scrima of gaining illegal access to confidential information from its competitor Movement Mortgage to poach their employees and take their […]

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Home equity remained near historic highs to end 2023

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Buoyed by a rise in home prices, U.S. homeowners with mortgages saw their home equity increase by 8.6% year over year in fourth-quarter 2023. Homeowners saw an average increase of slightly more than $24,000 compared to Q4 2022, adding up to a collective gain of $1.3 trillion, according to CoreLogic’s newest homeowner equity report. Net […]

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US Muslims to Begin Ramadan Observance as War Rages in Gaza

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WASHINGTON — The Islamic holiday of Ramadan is being observed this year as the Israel-Hamas war surges in Gaza, where the United Nations is warning of a growing humanitarian crisis. Imam Talib Shareef of Masjid Muhammad, the Nation’s Mosque, in Washington said there will be differences in how Muslims observe this year because of the conflict. […]

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Reverse mortgage volume, securities issuance fall in February

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Despite feelings of optimism expressed by loan originators in the opening weeks of 2024, the road to more normalized levels of reverse mortgage volume and securities issuances may be longer than expected. Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsements fell 11.8% to 1,900 loans in February, a drop telegraphed by lagging case numbers and sluggish endorsement […]

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NYCB, a struggling $78B resi mortgage servicer, to receive $1B equity investment

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A group of investors led by the former U.S. Department of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s private equity firm, Liberty Strategic Capital, will inject $1 billion in equity investment in struggling New York Community Bancorp (NYCB), one of the nation’s largest residential mortgage servicers. The move strengthens the bank’s balance sheet amid a confidence crisis related […]

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CMG Financial inks seven-year partnership with Sagent

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California-based mortgage lender CMG Financial will partner with fintech Sagent for seven years as it brings its servicing business in-house. CMG Financial is “doubling down on controlling lifetime customer experience,” and the seven-year deal with Sagent is in line with the lender’s effort to prioritize its “homeowner-first strategy,” the companies said in a joint news […]

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Opinion: Moving beyond tech stack integrations

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For years, customized integrations have been the sign of a healthy tech stack, seamlessly connecting  the various technologies used by a particular title agency (mortgage lender, broker or appraisal management company, for that matter) to deliver optimal performance. After all, one of the challenges remaining to our industry – even after a wave of digitalization […]

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Top NewRez/Caliber LO John Abraham departs for The Money Store

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John Abraham, former top-producing mortgage loan officer at Caliber Home Loans/NewRez, has joined The Money Store. His team will be making the move with him. Abraham was named vice president and producing branch manager in Illinois, where he will serve as sales leader and mortgage originator. Top 200 mortgage loan originator John Abraham recently joined […]