As a group, banks and thrifts reported net earnings of $4.76 billion on their mortgage-banking activity during the third quarter, a 42 percent drop from the second quarter.

In letters to two government agencies, a group of 10 Democrat lawmakers said the FHFA should continue to provide access to government-sponsored enterprise MBS guaranties and the Department of Housing and Urban Development should allow FHA mortgage insurance in such communities.

Residential originators have altered their processes and interactions with brokers to reduce potential underwriting and appraisal defects.

Some sellers of residential servicing rights are selling bulk, but are also entering into "flow" components.

The IG's office of the Federal Housing Finance Agency is working with various U.S. Attorneys on reviews of lenders’ loan origination practices to determine their compliance with enterprise requirements.

The civil action entails the alleged taking from WJB of some 5,000 loan files. It should be noted that these aren’t just any LOs – the group in question ranks among the top producers in the nation.

According to an analysis from Inside MBS & ABS, barring a sudden, unexpected shift in strategy, the Fed by the end of this year will exceed the total MBS holdings of commercial banks and thrifts.

Commercial banks continued to see their investment in residential MBS slowly evaporate during the third quarter of 2013 even though the overall market appears to finally be growing again. A new Inside MBS & ABS analysis of recently-released call report data shows that commercial banks and thrifts held a combined $1.513 trillion of residential MBS as of the end of September. That was down 1.0 percent from the end of June and represented the lowest level since the middle of 2011. Depositories and other private MBS investors have...[Includes two data charts]

Some 33 mortgage lenders contributed loans to the new jumbo MBS led by Guaranteed Rate with a 9.3 percent share.

Nancy Handal, managing director of insurance conglomerate MetLife, oversees a $70 billion fixed-income portfolio and a $6 billion “high-yield” residential MBS opportunity fund – but has bought into just one jumbo MBS deal over the past few years. And she’s not shy about the reasons why: it’s all about disclosures. Handal is not happy about what non-agency issuers disclose and in particular she’s dismayed that MBS investors are essentially frozen out of the due-diligence process. Speaking at a housing forum sponsored by the Urban Institute and CoreLogic this week, the MetLife executive expressed...