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A trigger leads bill on Capitol Hill is moving forward as lawmakers backed the effort to protect the privacy of mortgage applicants nationwide.The House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday unanimously adopted the Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act, an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which would prohibit some lenders from contacting borrowers. Consumers and trade groups have derided the trigger leads which stem from a credit bureau selling a consumer's data when a lender pulls an applicant's credit report.The bill, H.R. 2808, was introduced in April by Reps. John Rose, R-Tenn., and Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., after a similar effort fell short of passage last year. The recent amendment passed with unanimous support and heads to the House of Representatives with a favorable recommendation. Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Bill Haggerty, R-Tenn., meanwhile have reintroduced a similar bill in the Senate. The timeline for the bill to reach President Trump's desk remains uncertain. What the new trigger leads bill would doAccording to lawmakers and trade groups, a consumer's data is sold by credit bureaus to data brokers, including other lenders, after a mortgage credit pull, without the customer's knowledge or approval. The move results in consumers being bombarded with text messages, phone calls and emails with credit offers, sometimes from companies misrepresenting their relationship to the borrower's original lender. Currently, credit reporting agencies are permitted to resell consumers' information under the FCRA, as long as callers make a "firm offer of credit". The Rose/Torres bill seeks to narrow the instances in which a company can reach out to a consumer. Under the bill, credit reporting agencies can't furnish trigger leads to third parties, unless they certify that the consumer has explicitly consented to the solicitations. Exceptions are also made for the borrower's original mortgage lender or current servicer, and for banks and credit unions where borrowers have depository accounts. A lone dissent to the bill dissipatesThe amendment also requires the General Accountability Office to perform a study on the value of trigger leads received via text message. Tuesday's amendment had over 80 co-sponsors, and Committee members lauded its privacy protections, while sharing anecdotes of themselves and constituents being inundated with calls and text messages. "There is no other industry that gives away your private files like the credit bureaus, and to get money on it is wrong," said Ralph Norman, R-S.C. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., backed the bill but also used her time to chide what she perceived as hypocrisy by Republican lawmakers on data privacy. "I find it rich that any Republican would claim to support data privacy when they have done nothing about Trump letting Elon Musk and his DOGE minions steal the sensitive data from hundreds of millions of Americans," she said, referring to the cost-cutting task force. Young Kim, D-Calif., whose district includes parts of Orange County, briefly opposed the vote before withdrawing her own amendment. She said the bill cuts corners and deprioritizes the consumer, referencing the large number of consumers who don't shop for mortgage offers."Unfortunately, if today's bill were to be passed into law, it would be our constituents who would suffer the most as they lose a key tool to compare offers," she said. Kim said she wants to work with Rose and Torres on the bill, and shared a letter from the Consumer Data Industry Association, which has previously opposed trigger lead reform.The Mortgage Bankers Association Monday evening had asked lawmakers to pass the bill. Following Tuesday morning's vote, the Community Home Lenders of America shared a statement lauding the bill's progress."CHLA is particularly pleased that this bill included language that the CHLA advocated to protect relationships between borrowers and the smaller lenders that originated their existing mortgage," said Scott Olson, executive director.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he's pressuring Senate Republicans to refrain from changing a deal to increase the state and local tax deduction cap to $40,000, pushing back on President Donald Trump's willingness to scale back the write-off."I've asked them to modify it as little as possible because I've got a very delicate balance there," Johnson told reporters at the White House on Monday."The reality is that we have a very diverse conference," Johnson added, noting that he has several members who represent high-tax areas in New York, New Jersey and California. "This is a very important thing for their constituents."Johnson is seeking to preserve a deal he struck with those members last month to increase the SALT cap to $40,000, up from $10,000 in current law. That plan was critical to passing Trump's tax bill out of the House last month.But as the Senate has begun negotiating the legislation, SALT has fallen off the agenda as a priority issue. No Republican senator hails from a state where SALT is a big political issue.Trump last week told Senate Republicans he is open to a state and local tax deduction cap lower than the $40,000 in the House-passed version of his giant tax bill. Several House Republicans have threatened to block the legislation if the Senate waters down the SALT write-off, setting up high-stakes negotiations between the two chambers as they look to meet a self-imposed July 4 deadline to pass the bill.Some Senate Republicans are also pressing to pare the bill's price tag, while other factions are looking to scale back House-passed changes to Medicaid and phase out some green energy credits more slowly."We're going to get it done by Independence Day," Johnson said. "It's going to be a great celebration."

Better Home & Finance tapped Leah Price, former fintech lead at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to oversee its artificial intelligence-driven Tinman loan origination platform.One of Price's main objectives will be to "disrupt" the mortgage technology playing field, by competing with legacy players like Encompass, which powered over 5 million mortgages in 2024.Price brings ample industry knowledge from both the public and private lending sector to her new position.Apart from her time leading FHFA's Office of Fintech and the Office of the Chief AI Officer, the executive worked at Figure Technologies as a vice president of lending ecosystem from 2021 to 2022. Prior to that, Price worked at Fannie Mae from 2015 to 2021 where she led product development for the enterprise's Day 1 Certainty pilots.Vishal Garg, CEO and founder of Better, said Price has joined the mortgage lender at a time when the firm plans to "bring [its] disruptive technology to market." This may hint at the fact that the shop is planning to delve more into being a business software service provider."Through Tinman, Better Mortgage has automated time and labor-intensive components of the mortgage process — reducing our cost to originate by over 40% compared to the industry average," said Garg in a written statement. "Our loan officers have compressed a staggering 80% of their back-office costs using our platform."Better aims to attract other mortgage lenders to its platform by demonstrating its cost-saving potential in loan origination.The company has recently updated its AI platform, notably launching Betsy, a voice assistant designed to guide borrowers through loan applications. This assistant is integrated into Better's proprietary loan origination system. Executives have emphasized their confidence in their AI capabilities, predicting they will eventually lead to profitability.Depending on the mortgage market, Better could achieve profitability in the second half of 2026, Chief Financial Officer Kevin Ryan said in a previous interview.Better reported a $51 million net loss in the first quarter. This is consistent with losses of $59.2 million and $50 million in the previous and year-ago periods, respectively. The digital lender has not yet achieved a quarterly profit since going public 21 months ago.

By acquiring Title365, Covius Services, whose product offerings including title and settlement services primarily on defaults, will be expanding its presence on the origination side, a company executive said.It complements Covius' existing expertise in providing title services for defaults, Pete Pannes, chief business officer, said."Second, there were significant technical integrations that we've been working on at Covius," Pannes continued. "The platform that Title365 operates off of significantly expands and scales our presence; our ability to leverage their integrations moves our technical abilities and integrations more by a number of quarters, it could be as much as two years forward."What percentage of Title365 is Covius buyingCovius will be purchasing 100% of the company from Blend Labs; the price to be paid is not being disclosed at this time. When Blend purchased Title365 in June 2021 in a deal valued at $500 million; it acquired a 90.1% interest in the company, while the seller, Mr. Cooper, retained the remaining 9.9%.But in February, the holder of that 9.9% interest, which was not named in the first quarter 10-Q, assigned it to Title365 and terminated its stockholder's agreement with Blend.A unit of what was then called Nationstar, Solutionstar, acquired Title365 for $36 million in November 2014.In May, during its first quarter earnings call, Blend disclosed it was marketing Title365 for sale.Kirby Hulbert, president of Title365, will be moving over to Covius' settlement services team.What Title365 adds to Covius' existing title businessWhat Covius currently has on the origination side is a centralized business model, which operates in a narrower band in the marketplace, Pannes explained.The transaction expands those capabilities, with a plus being Title365 is already integrated with most of the loan origination systems. Trying to replicate that on its own would take a significant amount of time, Pannes added.This also helps the default title business because Title365 has a number of blue chip clients to whom it can now market Covius' services.How this deal brings Blend and Covius together"We now can leverage our existing client base as well as expanding those opportunities to partner with the Blend platform," with that client base, Pannes said.Besides the opportunity to expand Covius' services business, "it allows Blend to continue what they do well, which is provide software related services to their platform clients," he added.In its first quarter results, Blend moved Title365 into its discontinued operations line. It reported a net loss of $2.8 million from discontinued operations and an overall net loss of $9.4 million.Blend's business model going forwardBlend has decided it wanted to have a more focused company, something it has been calling "Simplify Blend" on its earnings call, CEO Nima Ghamsari said."We're going to be a pure software company, building the best technology," Ghamsari said. "That's really what our differentiator has been from the get go."The aim is to help their lender customers thrive, do more loans, save money and allow the consumers to have a better experience. This sale helps Blend to refocus on that as a company."A lot of that is driven by the market," Ghamsari noted. "The market doing what it has, has forced everyone in the industry, not just Blend, to really prioritize."Companies are increasingly evaluating their core strengths and unique offerings and for Blend, that lies in its technology and software, he added.Blend's new partnership approachWhat hasn't changed is the opportunity to improve the home lending experience through title insurance. Blend is actively developing solutions in this space, with Covius among several partners supporting its efforts."We still believe in the technology side of this, which was always the intent," Ghamsari said. "Now we're just going to execute on just that portion and have more of a partnership approach, just like we do with homeowners insurance, just like we did with the recent announcement in the verification of income space."While high interest rates and lower-than-expected volumes affected Title365, the silver lining to Ghamsari is it has allowed the industry, not just Blend, to focus and decide what they are truly great at."It's really cleaned up a lot of the fluff that existed at companies like Blend and other tech companies and within the industry," he said, "It's been a helpful exercise for us."

Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., joined Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., in sponsoring a forthcoming bill that would allow the Federal Housing Finance Agency to set executive compensation rules for leaders at the Federal Home Loan banks.Bloomberg News WASHINGTON — Sens. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-Nev., are introducing a bill that would allow the Federal Housing Finance Agency director to set limits for executive pay at the Federal Home Loan banks, according to a copy of the legislation seen by American Banker. The bill is a rare bipartisan effort in a divided Washington that combines Republicans' desire to dramatically reduce the federal footprint and spending with Democrats' complaints that the Federal Home Loan Bank System has drifted away from its initial mission of expanding affordable housing. "Federal Home Loan banks exist to help Americans buy homes, not to pad the pockets of executives," Banks said. "This bill keeps FHLBs on mission and empowers President Trump and FHFA Director Pulte to eliminate excessive pay and waste of government resources." Specifically, the bill allows the director of the FHFA — which oversees the Federal Home Loan Bank System — to establish compensation for any executive officer of a Federal Home Loan bank that is "reasonable and comparable with regulations promulgated by the director." "While the Federal Home Loan Bank System has continued to fail to meaningfully invest in affordable housing and community development, it pays its executives millions each year," Cortez-Masto said. "This bipartisan legislation gives the Federal Housing Finance Agency more oversight over FHLBanks executives' compensation to help make sure the system delivers for working families." The Council of Federal Home Loan Banks, which represents the Home Loan Bank System, said in a statement that the banks are cooperative enterprises that require considerable expertise to operate effectively. "The FHLBanks are member-owned cooperatives operating with private capital and are subject to significant regulatory and supervisory requirements and their executives and boards must have the competencies and experience necessary to operate them safely and soundly," the group said in a statement.Broadly, the Federal Home Loan Bank System has pushed back against the idea that its executives are overcompensated. "Each of the 11 FHLBanks manages, on average, more than $100 billion in assets and operates mission-critical liquidity programs that serve thousands of members in all 50 states," the Council of Federal Home Loan Banks said in an early June statement responding to separate criticism about executive compensation. "These Banks are essential to increasing housing access and strengthening communities. Strong, experienced leadership isn't a luxury in financial services — it's a necessity — one that requires competitive, market-based compensation." Banks was part of a group that wrote to FHFA Director Bill Pulte in April expressing concerns about a report that the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco agreed to make a multimillion-dollar payment to a former appointee of President Joe Biden, which the authors said raises "serious concerns" about the extent to which the Federal Home Loan banks are "effectively stewarding their resources." Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., whose support will be crucial for the bill to get floor time during a markup, led that letter, alongside 12 other Republican Senate Banking Committee members. Cortez Masto has historically made the Federal Home Loan banks a centerpiece of her work on the Senate Banking Committee, criticizing the system for not focusing enough on affordable housing and instead serving as a liquidity backstop for banks that don't do enough lending in the affordable housing space. She introduced a bill in April that would have required each Federal Home Loan bank to contribute 30% of its net earnings to the Affordable Home Program and other programs that meet community needs, or a system-wide minimum contribution of $200 million for those programs.During the Biden administration, the FHFA said in a long-awaited report that the Home Loan Bank System should return to its housing finance roots rather than serve as a lender of last resort to imperiled financial institutions, as critics pointed out happened in the run-up to the 2023 regional banking crisis. The FHFA said that it plans to increase federal oversight of how banks are using the Home Loan banks and steer more banks toward the Federal Reserve's discount window for liquidity needs in the future.While Pulte — Trump's pick to lead the FHFA — isn't likely to hew closely to the Biden administration report, the bill shows that there is bipartisan support for at least some measure of reform around establishing some limits around executive compensation at the Home Loan banks. 

A Washington state financial regulator slapped a $185,000 fine on mortgage brokerage Xpert Home Lending, and will revoke its ability to originate loans in the state if the firm does not follow an agreed upon consent order.The mortgage broker was accused of a handful of infractions including failing to license a number of its branches, advertising its company without displaying necessary information and not developing an anti-laundering program that complies with the requirements of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a Washington state's consent order dated May 2 claims.Washington State Department of Financial Institutions claims at least five unlicensed branches had residents of its state working for Xpert Home. Meanwhile, at least one employee of the mortgage broker was advertising services of Xpert without properly displaying information from the NMLS.Allegations by the state follow a 2023 examination, which uncovered alleged violations of the state's Consumer Loan Act. Parties involved have agreed to take action to correct said issues and provide the state with updated copies of its anti-money laundering policy, supervisory plans and proof of advertising compliance,the consent order said.Xpert Home was formed in 2021 by brokers Richard Hanlin and Alysia Jill Budd, a former United Wholesale Mortgage account executive. The Georgia-based brokerage has over 600 sponsored loan officers and has branches in more than a dozen states, per the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System. Xpert Home was ranked as a top ten mortgage broker in 2021 by UWM, Hanlin's Linkedin said.If the mortgage broker and its two founders do not follow the consent order, they will be barred from originating loans in the state until May 2028, documentation shows.Xpert Home did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.Other lenders were also fined by the regulator in May, and some were ordered to stop operating in the state, according to the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions' website.California-based Bay-Valley Mortgage Group, Home Direction, Cleveland Street Mortgage and Directors Mortgage are among firms fined for breaching a number of Washington state requirements including not listing branches active, failing to have compliant supervisory plans and company misrepresentation.As federal regulators under the Trump administration have signaled that oversight will be reduced, mortgage stakeholders have commented that this will push state regulators to the forefront of policing the mortgage industry. "States like Massachusetts, California, Washington state, Kentucky, North Carolina and Illinois have always been tough. You're going to see some of these states step up," said Kevin Peranio, chief lending officer at PRMG, speaking at the Broker Action Coalition advocacy conference in mid-April.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that claws back a number of fraud-related mandates by his predecessor, who the Trump White House claimed had engaged in "censorship" and enabling illegal immigration.The order, which was signed on Friday, preempts multiple efforts initiated by former President Joe Biden in the waning days of his presidency, including one to enable wider adoption of digital driver's licenses, another to provide banks with greater access to federal data related to identity verification and one that would have notified U.S. citizens of potential benefits fraud being committed under their name.Trump also pulled back directives that would have provided funds for certain AI-related research and engagement with other governments and the private sector related to adopting quantum-proof encryption standards.Banks will not get more access to identity verification dataThe January executive order from Biden called for potential upgrades to the Social Security Administration's electronic Consent Based Social Security Number Verification, or eCBSV, service, which banks and credit unions currently use to verify customer identity information against agency records.The Biden order directed the head of the Social Security Administration, or SSA, to establish "a new or significantly modified routine use of records" for identity verification and allowed for other agencies that issue identity documents, such as the Department of State which issues passports, to consider building similar services.According to the Biden order, any such system offered by SSA or other agencies for digital identity verification should be available to government agencies, U.S.-regulated financial institutions and payment integrity programs.The Trump executive order strikes these directions, which would have specifically enabled U.S.-regulated financial institutions to access these identity verification services.Digital driver's license adoption posed to stagnateThe January executive order from Biden aimed to enable more states to adopt digital driver's licenses and instructed the federal government to begin accepting these digital documents for identity verification, particularly to reduce fraud in public benefits programs. The Biden order also encouraged federal grant-making agencies to issue grants to states developing mobile driver's licenses.The Trump administration's statement on the new order alleges that the Biden administration "attempted to sneak problematic and distracting issues into cybersecurity policy." This included, according to the statement, "introducing digital identity mandates that risked widespread abuse by enabling illegal immigrants to improperly access public benefits."Trump's order "strips away inappropriate measures outside of core cybersecurity focus, including removing a mandate for U.S. government issued digital IDs for illegal aliens that would have facilitated entitlement fraud and other abuse," according to the White House.The Trump executive order specifically strikes section 5 of the Biden Executive Order 14144, which contained the provisions encouraging the development and acceptance of digital identity documents for public benefits programs and grants to states for mobile driver's licenses.Individuals will not get notified about potential benefits fraudThe January 2025 Biden executive order instructed the Treasury and General Services Administration to research, develop and conduct a pilot program for technology designed to notify individuals and entities when their identity information is used to request a payment from a public benefits program.The goal of this technology was to give individuals and entities the option to stop potentially fraudulent transactions before they occur and report fraudulent transactions to law enforcement. While this technology might not directly affect banks, the Biden order suggested it could create a standard for informing consumers about identity-based fraud that banks and credit unions might be expected to follow.The Trump executive order strikes these instructions.Some quantum cryptography efforts remain intactThe January 2025 Biden executive order sought to address the risks posed by future quantum computers capable of breaking current encryption by instructing the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, to release and regularly update a list of product categories supporting post-quantum cryptography, or PQC, which would help banks identify products they could trust to secure their data.The Biden order also set requirements for national security and civilian agencies to adopt Transport Layer Security, or TLS, protocol version 1.3 or later by January 2030.The Trump executive order amends the section in the Biden Executive Order 14144 related to quantum computing but keeps the aforementioned requirements related to product categories and TLS.Under the Trump order, federal agencies no longer need to include PQC in product solicitations, implement PQC key establishment practices, or engage foreign governments and industry on transitioning to PQC.AI in cybersecurity deprioritizedThe January 2025 Biden executive order highlighted the potential of AI to transform cyber defense through identifying vulnerabilities, increasing threat detection scale and automating defenses.The Biden order included provisions for accelerating AI development and deployment, exploring AI use for critical infrastructure security and accelerating AI research. Specific directives included agencies prioritizing funding for large-scale datasets for cyber defense research and ensuring accessibility, and incorporating AI software vulnerability management into existing agency processes.The Trump administration said that the new order "refocuses artificial intelligence (AI) cybersecurity efforts towards identifying and managing vulnerabilities, rather than censorship." The statement did not clarify how the Biden order engaged in censorship.The Trump executive order strikes and replaces Biden's directives with new ones requiring agencies to ensure existing datasets for cyber defense research have been made accessible to the academic community by November 1, 2025.It also requires the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and Director of National Intelligence, in coordination with others, to incorporate management of AI software vulnerabilities and compromises into their existing processes and interagency coordination mechanisms by November 1, 2025.Trump's order also removes requirements that would have established a program to use advanced AI models for cyber defense and initiated a pilot program on the use of AI to enhance cyber defense in the energy sector.The Trump order retains the requirement to incorporate management of AI software vulnerabilities and compromises into agencies' existing processes and interagency coordination mechanisms for vulnerability management (i.e., incident tracking, response, reporting and sharing indicators of compromise for AI systems).

Despite increasing mortgage rates and economic volatility, the outlook among home buyers and sellers improved on both a monthly and annual basis, according to Fannie Mae's latest housing survey.   The government-sponsored enterprise's monthly Home Purchase Sentiment Index increased to a reading of 73.6 in May, up from 69.2 one month earlier. May's level also rose from 69.1 on a year-over-year basis. Fannie Mae's HPSI headed higher for the second month in a row after plunging in March to its lowest mark since late 2023 on the heels of President Trump's various tariff proposals. The index's upward movement coincided with his announcements of temporary pauses on implementation for some of the taxes.   May's numbers climbed up in five out of the six components that make up the HPSI, even as lending rates also steadily increased throughout May. At the same time, though, other economic research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York revealed greater worries in the near-term outlook among American consumers, with many expressing apprehension about their financial situation in 2025. Still, the Fannie Mae report's more optimistic take aligns with recent data from Redfin, which showed growing supply driving the cumulative value of for-sale listings to its highest level since at least 2012. The real estate brokerage previously found buyer cancellations early this spring coming in higher as well, a potential indicator of conditions and inventory improving in the eyes of aspiring homeowners. While more consumers in Fannie Mae's survey felt it was a bad time to buy as opposed to a good one, positive purchase sentiment jumped up on a net basis by seven percentage points from April and 24 percentage points when compared to May 2024. Net selling sentiment finished higher by 6% compared to a month earlier, but decreased by 6% from a year ago. Meanwhile, views on home prices showed more consumers expect higher housing costs over the next year. The share who expect to see prices rising grew by 3% from April but decreased 1% from a year earlier. Forty-five percent overall said they expect prices to continue their upward trend. While 2% more potential buyers and sellers still anticipate mortgage rates to rise rather than fall over the next year, the net share narrowed from a month earlier by seven percentage points, according to Fannie Mae's HPSI.

As hard as they try, mortgage rates keep hovering around the 7% level.It appears any time progress is made, they climb right back to 7%, or very close to it.After the jobs report on Friday was a tad hotter than expected, they turned higher after what was looking like a winning week.At last glance, they made their way to 6.97%, just shy of 7%, per Mortgage News Daily.They’re having a difficult time getting away from those levels, though relief could still come later in the year.Jobs Report Pushes Mortgage Rates Back Toward 7%It wasn’t necessarily a hot jobs report, but it still beat expectations.Some 139,000 nonfarm payrolls were added in May, well below April’s levels, but more than the 126,000 expected.At the same time, there were revisions for the April and March numbers.It makes you wonder if May will be revised too, but in the meantime bond traders took it as a cue to sell.The 10-year bond yield went up as a result and the 30-year fixed followed.After it appeared mortgage rates were trending down again, they were right back by 7% again.The culprit has been steady enough employment, rising wages, and the thought that the Fed will push back rate cuts.While the Fed doesn’t set mortgage rates, bond traders pay attention to their monetary policy.As such, rates are higher and may stay that way for longer.First Fed Rate Cut Not Until December?Now some analysts don’t expect a Fed rate cut until December, which makes you wonder if we’ll even see any at all in 2025.There were previous forecasts of three or more cuts this year.Driving the change is a supposed resilient economy, at least according to the data.And the thought that inflation could pick up again as the tariff impact becomes more clear.Taken together, it makes it difficult to foresee any big moves lower for interest rates.Of course, the data can change, and the sentiment on the street isn’t as rosy.Talk to your average American and they’ll likely paint a more pessimistic picture.But until the data backs that up, it might be higher for longer.And given it’s already June, the spring home buying season has come and gone.It’s looking like another lackluster year for home sales similar to 2024.When that dynamic finally changes is becoming more uncertain.But so far it’s another painful year for real estate agents, loan officers, and of course, prospective home buyers.Not to mention recent home buyers who may have been banking on a quick refinance to lower their rate.However, despite the near-term outlook for mortgage rates, there’s still another half a year left in 2025.And plenty can change mortgage rate-wise.That could give affordability a much needed boost and also make more refinance applications pencil.But unfortunately patience is the name of the game right now. Before creating this site, I worked as an account executive for a wholesale mortgage lender in Los Angeles. My hands-on experience in the early 2000s inspired me to begin writing about mortgages 19 years ago to help prospective (and existing) home buyers better navigate the home loan process. Follow me on X for hot takes.Latest posts by Colin Robertson (see all)

A pair of billion-dollar originators are sparring over poaching accusations which were allegedly orchestrated by a father and his sons.Idaho-based Premier Mortgage Resources is suing Canopy Mortgage for unspecified damages over a family's alleged recruitment of their former PMR colleagues, and loans-in-progress, to Canopy. The Utah-based Canopy has asked a Washington federal court to dismiss the lawsuit, largely because it lacks details.The complaint identifies 10 unnamed defendants, but blames the family for the scheme. They are Curt Lillibridge, a former PMR area manager; Riley Lillibridge, a branch manager; and Keil and Cameron Lillibridge, which the lender says were former loan officers. None of the Lillibridges are identified in the filing as defendants.According to PMR, the family abruptly resigned in December 2023 and began working for Canopy immediately. The Lillibridges allegedly enticed their colleagues to join Canopy both before and after their departure, activity which forced PMR to shutter its Everett, Washington branch because of a lack of employees.The lawsuit accuses Canopy of misappropriating PMR's confidential loan information, leading some loans in progress to eventually close at the competitor. "As a result of the foregoing unlawful conduct, (Canopy) has stolen many of plaintiff's in-process loans, resulting in millions of dollars of lost business revenue to Plaintiff," wrote attorneys for PMR.An attorney for PMR declined to comment Friday, while neither Canopy and its attorney nor the Lillibridges returned requests for comment. PMR is accusing defendants of tortious interference with both its origination activity and employment contracts. The lender also argues the Lillibridges should be subject to arbitration. Canopy filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit last month, arguing the complaint doesn't describe in any detail the transferred loans in question, or how Canopy aided the Lillibridges in their alleged scheme. "Premier offers no factual allegation to support its assertion that Canopy intended to interfere with any contract, much less that it intended to do so in an improper manner," wrote counsel for Canopy. The opposing lender is also asking a judge to stay the lawsuit, pending the outcome of arbitration, which is private and could keep the lawsuit at bay for a while. The case is similar to the numerous poaching and theft of trade secret claims filed between mortgage shops during the refinance boom, when firms were flush and sought high-producing talent. While some of those cases linger, larger lenders have settled many disputes. Premier spans 55 branches and counts 300 sponsored mortgage loan originators, according to a public database. It originated $3.53 billion in loan volume last year, according to a Richey May analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. Canopy reported $2.2 billion in volume last year and employs 449 sponsored originators across 98 branches, according to the databases.