After NYCB streamlined its branch operations under the Flagstar name, the publicly traded company will begin trading under a new stock ticker symbol in late October.

Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said his tenure at the agency could be characterized as simply reading statutes rather than finding novel ways to enforce regulations.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s nonbank registry to address repeat corporate offenders goes live this week, but some experts have raised concerns about redundancy and costs for nonbanks.

Political contributions from the housing finance industry lean Republican, but more mortgage dollars have gone to Harris than Trump.

Mortgage rates have been holding in a fairly narrow range since the middle of last week and today was one of the least interesting additions to the trend.  The average lender is essentially unchanged versus yesterday, up a mere 0.01%, but down 0.02% from last Friday. Mortgage rates are primarily a function of trading levels in the bond market.  Bonds respond to a variety of motivations, but the biggest risks and opportunities are tied to major economic reports. With that in mind, it’s no surprise to see a general lack of movement recently as last week’s only major economic data was inconclusive.  Tomorrow morning brings the first potentially significant data of the week with several reports being released at 8:30am ET with Retail Sales being the headliner.  This is well before most any mortgage lender updates its rate offerings for the day.  There’s never a guarantee that economic data will move the needle.  All we can know is that potential volatility is higher.  The data would have to come in much higher or lower than forecast in order to cause a big move in rates. Even then, Retail Sales and tomorrow’s other reports are not in the same league as the mighty jobs report that sent rates screaming higher 2 weeks ago. 

Thursday Morning is This Week’s Biggest Volatility Risk

While there was certainly a bit of an upward drift in Treasury yields through the end of last week, mortgage rates and MBS saw it as a bit more of a sideways grind.  Last Thursday’s data had a chance to create some momentum, but ultimately failed.  Thursday is also this week’s most active day for potentially significant econ data with Retail Sales likely getting the most attention.  That said, “attention” has a lot to do with the size of beat/miss.  As always, the market is already priced to reflect the median forecast, so there’s no way to know if one outcome is more likely than another.  What we do know is that Thursday’s data is not in the same league as the big jobs report or several other events in early November.  It’s just the best we have this week.

Market Movement Recap

08:51 AM Stronger overnight but losing some ground early.  MBS unchanged.  10yr down 1.1bps at 4.022

12:34 PM modest gains into the noon hour.  MBS up 2 ticks (.06) and 10yr down 2.3bps at 4.01

03:19 PM Very sideways.  MBS up 3 ticks (.09) and 10yr down 1.5bps at 4.018

The market was hungry for data before the jobs report week and has been even hungrier since then.  Unfortunately, there haven’t been many compelling reports and, more importantly, no results that have been far enough away from expectations to cause much drama.  Last week’s Jobless Claims number could have been the only exception, but it was mitigated by hurricane related distortions.  The same will likely be said of Tomorrow’s installment, thus leaving Retail Sale as the week’s only big to-do.  As for today, it’s just another placeholder in the choppy, sideways drift that’s been intact since the jobs report.

An attorney will tell you, “Never miss a good chance to shut up.” Today I head to the Portland/Vancouver area for a few days with Banner Bank. Oregon has 12,000 licensed attorneys, Washington 27,000; number of regulators and administrators unknown. (Hear Mark Calabria interviewed tomorrow.) Banking Law 360 reported that, “At a tough-talking appearance in Utah on Friday, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra said he doesn’t sweat potential legal challenges to his agency’s rules and suggested some industry-side attorneys can be ‘leeches’ who relish compliance uncertainty if it boosts their billable hours.” Some will counter with, “Make the regulations clearer and there won’t be any uncertainty.” Still others will tell you that the CFPB, fearing a change in presidential administration, will be ramping up enforcement actions and fines. The CFPB is rumored to be cutting deals on settlements now, because regulators are worried they will all be undercut if Trump wins. Yesterday the CFPB announced that it and the Department of Justice took action against Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation. More below. (Today’s podcast can be found here, and this week’s is sponsored by Aidium. Aidium’s CRM and Business Intelligence platform is the go-to system for lenders and enterprises serious about embracing technology to drive progress. Aidium boasts hundreds of integrations, a simple-to-use automation builder, reporting suite, and true AI for lead prioritization. Hear an interview with Aidium’s Spencer Dusebout on how technology is helping lenders increase margins, improve operational efficiency, and better serve clients.)

Ginnie Mae is more concerned about a small economic downturn than a large one and is working with other public entities to prepare and survive should it come to pass.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Department of Justice issued a consent order against Wisconsin-based nonbank mortgage originator Fairway Independent Mortgage over redlining allegations. Fairway is the country’s fifth-largest mortgage originator by volume.