Mike Savino

The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee is likely to raise the federal fund rate by another 75 basis points next week, experts agree. Those same experts also think this will have little impact on mortgage rates, so long as the Fed doesn’t throw the market a curveball with something unexpected. Lenders have baked that same assumption into the current mortgage rate.

It was easy to focus on getting borrowers the lowest rate during the refinance boom, but that short-term view may have reshaped how customers experience the mortgage process. J.D. Power’s annual consumer satisfaction survey found borrowers now see little difference between lenders. “The problem th…

More than 100 laid off employees are suing AmeriSave Mortgage Corp., claiming the company lied about its financial health, failed to pay wages and bonuses, and even defamed them. A group of 140 former employees claim AmeriSave even made it difficult for them to get new jobs by saying they were fired “for cause” after they were laid off last summer. They’re seeking nearly $43.5 million in damages. The lawsuit was moved from California state court to federal court last week at AmeriSave’s requ…

Equifax, Inc. has asked a federal judge in Georgia to dismiss a class action lawsuit over a glitch that resulted in credit score errors last spring. Equifax claimed in the lawsuit that the glitch should not be considered a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, or FCRA, for several reasons, including because it was a simple mistake. The lawsuit stems from a glitch that affected scores Equifax gave to lenders in March and April of 2022.

A former CrossCountry Mortgage employee is suing the company over claims of unpaid wages and overtime. Paul Lundholm, of New Jersey, said in a lawsuit filed this week in federal court that CrossCountry “knowingly misclassified loan salespeople as being exempt from overtime, failing to pay them required minimum wage and overtime,” in violation of both the Federal Labor Standards Act and New Jersey Law. The lawsuit also accuses CrossCountry of using sign-on bonuses to unlawfully get employees…

Wells Fargo is once again under investigation by federal regulators. This time, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission are looking into Wells Fargo’s “compliance with records retention requirements relating to business communications sent over unapproved electronic messaging channels,” the company disclosed Tuesday in an SEC filing. The company did not elaborate. The SEC has been cracking down on publicly traded companies’ retention of electro…

A former reverse mortgage executive is out on bond while he appeals his conviction and 44-month federal prison sentence for defrauding investors.  Michael Hild, the one-time Live Well CEO, claims his attorney, Benjamin Dusing, has a conflict of interest because of Dusing’s own legal troubles in Kentucky.  U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams agreed to release Dusing on bail, although she doubted Hild’s appeal claims will be successful. 

Mortgage rates continue to rise amid ongoing concerns about the economy, with the average 30-year fixed jumping 10 basis points. Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Survey said the average rate is now 6.65%, well above the recent low of 6.09% just a month earlier. MBS Highway CEO Barry Habib said the upward trend won’t last though, and rates will eventually cool after a rocky spring.

Inflooens CEO Amit Ghole and Melody Wright, SVP of Product and Strategy, joined a recent episode of the Principal to talk about why companies need to invest in technology, even when business is slow. They say the right investments can help avoid the need to scale up during good times and slash staff when originations drop. The interview was conducted by Mike Savino, Mortgage News Network (MNN) director of multimedia. (Editor’s note: Melody Wright has left Inflooens since this interview was condu…