Five Oaks' management noted that the REIT has better control of its jumbo MBS exposure since the company issued its own security in April.

VA originations by state-licensed lenders rose 14.5 percent from 2013 to 2014.

The FHLBs and Office of Finance must now be more specific and include descriptions of their outreach activities in regard to minorities and women.

Fidelity, a market leader in title insurance, has a market capitalization rate of $10.6 billion and is headed by William Foley, age 70, who has a history of spinning off companies.

Interactive Mortgage Advisors, MIAC and The Prestwick Group are working on deals as well.

The eight nonbanks – including the top publicly traded firms that rank high in originations, servicing or both – posted a combined $40.5 million in mortgage-banking income during the first quarter.

Last year loanDepot bought Mortgage Master, Walpole, MA, one of the largest home lenders in New England.

A group of eight large nonbank mortgage lenders managed to post positive earnings on their combined mortgage banking activities during the first quarter of 2015, but they failed to keep pace with a group of 24 banks and thrifts tracked by Inside Mortgage Trends. The eight nonbanks – including the top publicly traded firms that rank high in originations, servicing or both – posted a combined $40.5 million in mortgage-banking income during the first quarter ... [Includes one data chart]

REITs Continue to Join FHLBs. American Capital is the latest captive insurer mortgage real estate investment trust to join a FHLB. It announced in April that it joined the FHLB of Des Moines. A spokesman for the FHFA said that there has been no movement as of yet on the proposed ban to prevent REITS from gaining membership. Freddie Mac Announced Standard Pool Offering. Last week Freddie announced an upcoming auction of a $233 million standard pool offering of delinquent loans. The loans are offered as a single pool of geographically diverse deeply delinquent non-performing loans that are currently being serviced by Ocwen. Bids....

The Federal Housing Finance Authority announced on May 7 that it is easing loan limits on certain types of multifamily mortgages to exclude them from imposed $30 billion financing caps set on the GSEs earlier in the year. While the $30 billion cap on new multifamily lending won’t change, the FHFA is revising the excluded category to “facilitate continued liquidity in the multifamily finance market which has increased substantially since the initial cap was set.” With continuing growth in the multifamily market, analysts said there is a growing concern that the GSEs may hit the cap by the third quarter. Industry insiders also said that one of the goals is to ease the concern of both a possible tightening....