A reason to go digital? According to one study, the mortgage market consumes almost 2.2 billion sheets of paper annually, which is equivalent to more than 260,000 trees...

While the market for nonprime MBS was relatively strong during the first quarter, Moody’s said some investors have shied away from the sector.

John Getchis, senior vice president at Ginnie Mae, said he does not think the churning trend will continue…

Nationstar is handling the servicing chores on most of the loans, with Ocwen Financial taking a 2.60 percent share.

But there was some good news: BofA reported $4.05 billion of second lien production in the first quarter, a 13.7 percent improvement from the prior period.

In 2016, Movement Mortgage added 201 branches in five states. It now has 662 locations in 47 states.

Of course the bigger question is this: what role, if any, will the Fed play in deciding the future of Fannie and Freddie?

Even though PennyMac fared slightly worse than the total market, its first-quarter downturn was less severe than Wells Fargo’s.

“The CFPB’s use of consent decrees and administrative decisions to make changes in the rules, rather than formal rulemaking or published guidance, has created uncertainty in the market and higher costs for consumers,” the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

At the end of 2016, the CFPB had a number of pending investigations in the fair lending area, but the regulator offered no other details.