Mortgage rates hit new all-time low, Fraser to helm Citi and more of the week's top mortgage news

Citi picks Fraser to be next CEO as Corbat to retire in February

Citigroup picked Jane Fraser as its next chief executive, succeeding Mike Corbat, who is retiring in February after more than eight years in the top job.
Fraser, who was named the company’s president last year, will join the board immediately, the New York-based bank said in a statement Thursday. Her rise will mark the first female CEO of a major Wall Street bank. (Read full story here.)

CFPB gets tough with debt collectors as it readies rule

The agency is expected to finish a rule next month setting limits on collectors' communications with debtors. Financial institutions supported the bureau's middle-of-the-road proposal last year, which was not as severe as restrictions initially proposed by former Obama-appointed CFPB Director Richard Cordray. (Read full story here.)

Mortgage credit availability plummets to six-year low: MBA

After a small uptick in July, mortgage credit availability continued its decline, falling to the lowest point since March 2014, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The MBA's Mortgage Credit Availability Index dipped 4.7% month-over-month to 120.9 in August from 126.9 in July and181.7 from the year prior. The index went to181.3 in February before the coronavirus took hold of the economy. (Read full story here.)

Tyrrell to head ICE Mortgage Technology as Corr retires from Ellie Mae

Ellie Mae CEO Jonathan Corr announced his retirement in a blog post on the company's website Friday in a move that followed the completion of the company's sale to Intercontinental Exchange. Joe Tyrrell, who was Ellie Mae's chief operating officer since 2019 and an executive vice president since 2013, is now the president of ICE Mortgage Technology, a division that will also oversee MERS and Simplifile. MERS is an electronic registration system for mortgages, and Simplifile is a provider of digital closing services. (Read full story here.)

Lenders are feeling optimistic about the immediate future

Mortgage lenders expect consumer demand for both purchase and refinance loans to remain strong over the next three months, driving optimism when it comes to profitability, a Fannie Mae survey found. "Purchase demand growth expectations for the next three months reached the highest third-quarter readings since survey inception," Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan said in a press release. (Read full story here.)

Past forbearance will affect borrowers' ability to get new loans: FHA

The Federal Housing Administration on Thursday laid out guidelines for how previous forbearance — including forbearance granted due to coronavirus-related hardships — impacts borrowers' eligibility for new single-family mortgages. The guidelines are similar to those the Federal Housing Finance Agency established to address loans in the government-sponsored enterprise market. (Read full story here.)

Flagstar promotes Lee Smith to head its mortgage business

Flagstar Bank in Troy, Mich., has named Lee Smith as its new president of mortgage, stepping into the role vacated in July by Kristy Fercho, who now heads up Wells Fargo Home Lending.
Smith joined Flagstar in 2013 as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He directed a number of business units, including mortgage servicing, as well as strategy, balance sheet and cost optimization and mergers and acquisitions. (Read full story here.)

CMBS delinquency rate down in August, but ominous conditions remain

For the first time since the pandemic began, delinquencies among loans included in commercial mortgage-backed securities declined on a month-to-month basis, according to a Fitch Ratings analysis of its August data. But that good news was tempered by worrisome developments: a significant number of loans were classified as newly delinquent, and a large number of mortgages continue to be sent to a special servicer since they defaulted or have the potential to do so. (Read full story here.)