During everyone’s favorite week of the year (when Christmas ends and we’re waiting on the New Year) a report came out stating that the Trump Adminstration is considering, J. Mark McWatters to take over as the head of the CFPB. As I’m sure you can imagine, some banking institutions are a bit skittish about hearing McWatters name thrown around at the CFPB. As the chair of the NCUA, McWatters has been vocal about cutting back the amount of oversight the CFPB has on credit unions

Photo by Caley Dimmock on Unsplash As you know by now, the HMDA data collection update has been a major talking point throughout the industry. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, HousingWire put out a nice mini-series of articles explaining what’s changing and answering all your questions. Lenders and loan originators have been gearing up to meet the new reporting requirements that are set to go into effect starting next month to avoid the expected heavy fines that wou

Photo by Erwan Hesry on Unsplash As we enter 2018, could we see another credit scoring model implemented? Who knows… but what we do know is that FHFA is going to review possible alternatives to the Classic FICO. VantageScore Solutions and FICO 9 - are 2 of the potential models that have been analyzed and reviewed as contenders against the long standing Classic FICO. Regardless of which credit scoring model is chosen everyone wants to know… will changing the model make it easi

Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash My biggest fear for the B.R.A.W.L movement was that without any real call to action the “good guys” would use this initiative to market themselves and that the “bad guys” would rev their engines to turn this into a he said, she said scenario… well it looks like my fears have come true. Both loanDepot and Quicken Loans have now come forward to deny the claims that they are stealing customers from their broker counterparts. Quicken Loan’s COO

Ellie Mae’s latest “Millennial tracker” data showed that 60% of women who were listed as the primary borrower in October were single… as compared to the 42% that were single men. Even though men make up the lion share of the overall Millennial borrower population, most of them are married. As we continue to see Millennials exercise their buying power… make sure you’re marketing your products accordingly. Here is an article that goes into more details about Ellie Mae’s newest

Welcome to December! If you’re anything like me you like to start the first of the month off by listening to the Bone Thugs n’ Harmony classic, “1st of tha month” where they tell you to “Wake up, wake up, wake up it's the 1st of tha month… To get up, get up, get up so cash your checks and get up.” Ironically enough it looks like we’ll definitely have to “cash our checks” in order to afford anything in 2018. Experts say that after Janet Yellen’s speech yesterday, the probabili

In this day and age, data is everything. Accessing specific data allows companies to create strategic marketing plans and target customer groups that are flying under the radar. Mortgage loans are a commoditized product, so lenders are constantly looking for ways to create competitive advantages to increase their market share. With the expansion of HMDA data collection starting January 1, 2018 , certain lenders are seeing this as an opportunity rather than a burden. According

Something new to report… nobody knows what’s going in Washington D.C., particularly regarding the appointment of the new acting director of the CFPB. In an effort to block Mick Mulvaney ever stepping foot into the CFPB offices… the deputy director of the CFPB, Leandra English, sued the Trump administration late Sunday evening (that’s typically when I like to file my lawsuits as well). You can check out the paperwork here. What does this mean for the Mulvaney and the CFPB? Not

As the curtain opens for Act 1 of the 2017 holiday season I wanted to let you know that our country is about to spend an estimated $680 billion on food, travel, booze, wrapping paper, decorations, and of course presents! What a time to be alive… and spend! On a more personal note, Thanksgiving has become my favorite holiday as it’s a perfect time to reflect on the previous year’s happenings and be thankful for the important things… like deep-fried turkey, peppermint lattes, A

The age-old question: “Should I rent, or should I buy?” The answer, for now at least, is buy! I’m not just saying that because our livelihood depends on it, (although I kind of am) I’m saying that because a recent study from RENTcafé showed the average credit score needed to rent an apartment was 650, while individuals with a score of 538 or lower were being denied. What’s interesting is that the minimum FICO score required in our booming rental markets (Boston, San Fran, Sea

As an industry, when did we decide that it would be a good idea to remove an industry professional from the origination process and assume that borrowers want to complete their own application? What study or research did we find that decided… THIS is the way the industry is moving? I posted an article last week that showed 90% of borrowers (INCLUDING MILLENIALS) want to talk to a human, but we’re still investing in “Rocket” this… and “Streamlined” that. Did you know, that des