Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2012 combined for the third biggest year ever in single-family mortgage-backed securities issuance, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance market analysis and ranking.

Norton Wells, senior vice president of Bank of America’s mortgage resolution team, has left the company, industry officials confirmed to Inside Mortgage Finance.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a field hearing scheduled for January 17 in Atlanta, and industry sources fully anticipate that the bureau will release its final mortgage servicing rule the night before.

FHA reported $21 billion of new residential endorsements in November, down from the previous month but up substantially from the same period a year ago. Fixed-rate mortgages accounted for 80 pecent of the total. For details see the new edition of Inside FHA Lending.

Newcastle Investment Corp., a key player in the huge servicing sale recently unveiled by Bank of America, has raised roughly $538 million by selling 57.5 million shares of common stock in the open market.

Now that mortgage insurance claims are waning, and new business is on the rise again, there’s increasing talk that Essent Guaranty might file papers to go public this year.

JPMorgan Chase is joining the ranks of banks laying off loan review staff now that they’ve settled their foreclosure cases with the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has a mortgage-related field hearing scheduled for Thursday in Atlanta, is expected to issue its final servicing rule this week.

Residential Capital Corp., the bankrupt mortgage division of Ally Financial, has asked for court permission to sell an estimated $130 million of FHA-insured residential loans.