At press time, MFA's shares were up slightly on the day to $10.32 a unit. Its 52-week low is $9.36, its high $13.45.

The boost in refi business contrasted with lackluster performance in purchase mortgages.

Onity Group, which owns the servicer, noted that the decision stemmed from a "legacy practice."

Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's plans both received a middle-of-the-road score from the Underserved Mortgage Markets Coalition.

There was 3.7 months of housing supply on the market in January, the most since before the pandemic.

At yearend, UWM owned roughly $229.5 billion of MSRs.

All work at the CFPB, including supervision and examination activities, has ceased following an order by the bureau’s new acting director. Several rulemakings are also on pause.

The order, reached following a scheduling conference, also prohibits the administration from deleting data held by the CFPB and from transferring money from the bureau’s reserve funds.

Federal regulation is needed for data privacy, earned wage access products and artificial intelligence, industry experts say. But states may end up carrying the ball on some of these issues plus others.

The stay for now only applies to some lenders. But a pending court ruling in a Kentucky lawsuit against the bureau’s Section 1071 rule could stay compliance with the rule for all covered entities.