Seven agencies moved together this morning. The FDIC, NCUA, OCC, CFPB, HUD, DOJ and FHFA published a joint notice in today's Federal Register (Docket FR-6606-N-01) rescinding the Interagency Statement on Special Purpose Credit Programs Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B, the February 22, 2022 guidance that gave lenders a shared federal read on how to structure an SPCP. The notice is effective today, carries no comment period, and says two things plainly: creditors may not discriminate against borrowers based on prohibited characteristics, and creditors "should not rely upon the Interagency Statement or other related issuances going forward." Read the scope carefully before you tell a borrower anything. This is a notice, not a rulemaking, so it withdraws guidance rather than amending a regulation. The SPCP authority itself lives in ECOA and in Regulation B at 12 CFR 1002.8, and a notice cannot change either. What is gone is the interagency roadmap lenders were using to build and document those programs. If your shop offers a down payment assistance product, a targeted credit program or a community lending overlay that was written against that 2022 statement, expect legal to re-paper it or pause it while they do.
Yesterday the story was consolidation: NEXA absorbing UMortgage's 246 loan officers and $2.05 billion of trailing production, alongside Realtor.com's read on the busiest summer for contract signings since 2022. That thread runs straight into today. Two Harbors closes into CrossCountry Mortgage before the open this morning, ending a 20-month process and handing CCM the servicing rights it has been chasing since 2024, at $12 per share in cash plus a stub dividend for TWO holders. Real and REMAX finished their merger too, with REAX shares beginning to trade today on a combined platform the companies put at 180,000 agents across 120 countries, including 100,000 in the US and Canada. Three deals in two days, all of them moving where loans get originated and where they get serviced.
The connection worth holding is that the compliance surface and the competitive surface are both being redrawn in the same week that nobody can move rates. Zillow and Redfin settled with the FTC and five states the day before trial, over allegations Zillow paid Redfin $100 million to stop competing in apartment rental listings. Syndication survives, both companies will run standalone multifamily ad products, Zillow is targeting a 2027 launch, and Redfin has to spend real money rebuilding the ad business it walked away from. Separately, a federal judge let the core RESPA theory in the Veterans United class action proceed, refusing to treat the lender's affiliated real estate referral arrangement as categorically protected by the safe harbor. If you work an affiliated business arrangement, that ruling is the one to read this week, not the headline about the down payment guidance.
Rates did very little and are about to have a genuinely loaded Friday. Bankrate has the 30-year conventional at 6.75% today, three basis points above yesterday's 6.72%, inside a 30-day range of 6.67% to 6.82% and a 90-day range of 6.47% to 6.82%. The honest trend line: down two hundredths over seven days, up seven hundredths over thirty, so rates have firmed slightly and settled in the mid-6.7s rather than fallen. The 10-year sat at 4.74% on Friday after a 4.65% print midweek, and volatility is calm with the VIX at 15.13. Then Friday, August 28 stacks two events on one morning: Core PCE, and Fed Chair Kevin Warsh delivering his first Jackson Hole keynote as chair at the symposium running August 27 to 29. July's minutes showed three voting members wanting a quarter-point increase and no one arguing for a cut, so a Warsh speech that reinforces that posture and a firm PCE print would push the same direction. The next FOMC decision is September 15 to 16 and it carries a Summary of Economic Projections, so the dot plot is back on the board. For a borrower sitting at 6.75% on a $400,000 loan, a 10 basis point move either way is about $26 a month, which is the honest way to frame a lock conversation this week: the downside risk to waiting through Friday is real, and the upside is modest.
On the industry board: the OCC released its August 2026 enforcement actions, HousingWire's read of Q1 2026 data puts the all-in cost to originate a loan at $11,898 against $727 of pre-tax production profit per loan, with Freddie Mac data attributing 67% of that cost to personnel. Realtor.com's Q2 2026 cross-market demand report is the one to save: 60.1% of online views from the 100 largest metros went to homes outside the shopper's own market, up from 48.2% in 2019, and that structural shift is why your referral network should be wider than your county. Elsewhere, loanDepot received an NYSE notice over a sub-$1 share price with six months to cure, the Compass antitrust case added a new lead plaintiff tying StreetEasy delistings to higher New York City rents and broker fees, and the judge in the Roberts suit against eXp and CEO Glenn Sanford narrowed the claims with a September 18 conference ahead of an October 19 trial.
pull every file in your pipeline that uses a down payment assistance or targeted credit program, and email your compliance contact one question in writing today, before Friday buries it. Ask whether the program was structured against the 2022 Interagency Statement, and what the plan is if it was. You want that answer in your inbox before a borrower asks you at a closing table.