A federal judge last week dismissed claims brought by the state of Massachusetts that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac violated state law by putting limits on the sale of pre- and post-foreclosure homes. State Attorney General Martha Coakley filed suit in June against the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as GSE conservator, alleging that Fannie and Freddie are violating state law by refusing to negotiate lower terms for distressed Bay State homeowners.

The share price of Ocwen Financial recently fell to a 52-week low of $18.47, a 70 percent decline that has wiped out at least $5 billion in market equity.

Wells Fargo's origination market share keeps dropping, but is still more than double that of its closest competitor, JPMorgan Chase.

Once word leaks out that a mortgage company is a takeover target, many LOs start weighing their options, contacting competitors who tried to recruit them in the past.

Meanwhile, 84 lenders contributed to Redwood’s pending issuance, led by First Republic Bank with a 32.6 percent share.

In three-plus years of originating subprime mortgages, Citadel has suffered two foreclosures and a handful of delinquencies, but no losses.

2014 is going to go down as the worst year in new mortgage origination volume since the turn of the century, but it’s clearly not as bad as many have feared. Mortgage lenders produced an estimated $335 billion in new single-family loans during the third quarter, a solid 9.8 percent increase from the previous period, according to a new Inside MortgageFinance ranking and analysis. Significantly, the first and second quarters of this year were...[Includes two data charts]

When rates take a noticeable dive – as they have the past few weeks – mortgage lenders contemplating a sale sometimes have a change of heart, opting to ride the new production wave. But this time around, that doesn’t appear to be the case. “Most every lender I speak to understands this to be a very temporary event prior to a relatively cold and uncertain winter,” said M&A advisor Rick Roque of Menlo Company. Over the past two months, Inside Mortgage Finance has found 10 publicly announced M&A transactions with several more likely signed that weren’t disclosed. Roque, who’s working on several deals, said...

While originations of loans that don’t meet standards for qualified mortgages can subject lenders to increased liability, underwriting and compensating factors can help limit risks from non-QMs, according to Moody’s Investors Service. “Non-QM loans typically carry higher default risks than QM loans, but lenders can mitigate those risks by originating loans with attributes that compensate for the weaknesses that put the loans outside of the QM guidelines,” analysts at Moody’s said in a report published late last week. The rating service said...

Mortgage lending industry representatives urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to establish workable data integrity standards as it substantially expands reporting requirements under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. “Our members are committed to reporting accurate data and strive to do so, but the current supervisory expectation of a near-zero error rate is virtually impossible to achieve,” said six industry trade groups said in a joint comment letter. “As community banks and other small lenders pointed out to the bureau during the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act panel, the doubling of the number of reported fields can be expected to cause the error rate to increase exponentially.” Some small business participants raised...