A number of banks have been motivated to reduce their MSR holdings because of concentration limits imposed by the emerging Basel risk capital rules.

CitiMortgage performed the worst on the assessment of non-agency HAMP activity for the second quarter of 2014, with the Treasury claiming that the servicer needs to make substantial improvements.

MBA's Gross noted that the cost of changing external auditors is “significant,” both for large and small seller/servicers, whether they are public or not.

In general, the industry believes a g-fee hike may not happen after all, but then there's all those "other charges."

One source said the $3 billion “traded a few weeks back,” but could offer no more color on the transaction.

One question we occasionally hear is this one: If the GOP this fall gains control of the Senate can’t they just push through a GSE reform bill and hope to override a presidential veto, if there is one?

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued $61.1 billion in single-family mortgage-backed securities during the month of August, a 5.5 percent increase from the previous month, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. However, MBS issuance through the first eight months of 2014 was down 56.7 percent from the same period a year ago Top-ranked Wells Fargo’s Fannie and Freddie securitization, at $8.2 billion, rose by 3.1 percent on a monthly basis but dropped 70.0 percent year-to-date.

Mortgage lenders securitized $90.95 billion of single-family MBS through the GSEs and Ginnie Mae during August – the biggest monthly volume since September 2013, according to IM&A.

The top contributor to the new Redwood jumbo MBS is First Republic Bank with an 18.2 percent market share.

There are signs of life in mortgage hiring, depending on the job description. Firms looking to increase staff levels include the lending arm of Bayview Asset Management, Citadel Loan Servicing and Carrington Mortgage Services.