These Musings have spent the better part of the past 6 ½ years expressing my frustration at the lack of regulatory humility demonstrated by the nation’s consumer […]

What lenders are seeing now is the next logical step: the scores themselves are beginning to align more closely with the underlying data. A modern score is not simply an...

If you spend enough time around blockchain conversations in financial services, you start to notice a pattern: people talk about “tokenization” like it is one thing. It is not. It...

Q: With midterms approaching and housing affordability still a major concern, do you expect the Trump administration to step up its focus on the mortgage market? A: There’s already a...

At first glance, “lender choice” sounds like an unambiguously positive development. More choice typically implies more competition resulting in better pricing and improved outcomes for borrowers. In the context of...

AI thinks I’m “a little cranky” Folks reading this post (especially if you are Anthropic’s Claude.AI ) [1] may think of me as a “ sharp, plainspoken mortgage attorney who...

The SAFE Act (Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008) is a federal law that requires all residential mortgage loan originators (MLOs) to be licensed or registered...

Artificial intelligence has captured much of the mortgage industry's attention, but the deeper transformation underway is about data. As lenders rethink marketing, servicing, retention, and long-term borrower relationships, responsible consumer...

Quality control (QC) has never been the most glamorous part of the mortgage business, but it has always been one of the most important. In a market defined by tightening...

Yes, eliminate their role in credit reporting The phrase “Abolish ___” has been a cornerstone of social and political movements for centuries, used to demand the total elimination of specific...