Mortgage lenders plan increases

Last year turned out to be a positive one for the mortgage market, but mortgage lenders face a tougher operating environment in 2016. Against this backdrop, Fannie Mae surveyed senior mortgage executives in November to identify their concerns as they headed into 2016.

Despite their desire to grow or maintain their mortgage origination business in 2016, lenders told Fannie Mae’s Economic & Strategic Research Group they are worried about compliance risk and volume decrease risk.

When asked to identify the top three areas of concern for their business this year in Fannie Mae’s latest survey, 88 percent of lenders mentioned compliance risk and 55 percent of lenders mentioned volume decrease risk.

To remain competitive in the marketplace, lenders said they hoped to expand their marketing outreach and increase their retail branches or hire more loan officers. About 88 percent of those surveyed said they plan to grow their mortgage origination businesses, and 76 percent plan to grow their mortgage servicing arms.