Banks are still making nice profits off their residential lending and servicing businesses, but 4Q12 may turn out to be a peak in the cycle.

Freddie Mac is phasing out a software package that helps with the servicing of delinquent loans, a move that could help private sector technology vendors.

Loan officer compensation to individual originator employees is included in the calculation of the QM’s 3 percent limit on points and fees but the industry believes this is double counting.

Cole Taylor Mortgage, which has grown its servicing portfolio ten-fold in the past year, is now an active Ginnie Mae issuer.

The "flow" market for mortgage servicing continues to improve. IMA is in the market with a new package and others are on the way.

Mortgage profits are improving in the second quarter, but how long can it last? Meanwhile, Freddie talks about the CSP.

Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac held onto their ample shares of mortgage-backed securities with a slight bump during the first quarter of 2013, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis. The two GSEs issued a combined $355.8 billion in MBS during the first quarter, a 0.9 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2012. Compared to the first three months of last year, Fannie and Freddie saw a 16.6 percent increase in MBS issuance. Between the two companies, Fannie and Freddie registered an abundant 76.0 percent share of new MBS during the period that ended March 31, 2013, up from 75.8 percent the two companies held during the fourth quarter of 2012 but lower than the 78.0 percent both GSEs held during the first quarter of 2012.

“The private-label market is showing new signs of life,” according to Standard & Poor’s, which predicted that banks are likely to increase their securitization of jumbo mortgages. In a report released late last week, S&P projected $14 billion in non-agency jumbo MBS in 2013. Redwood alone set a goal of issuing $7 billion in non-agency MBS this year and is on pace to exceed that volume, helped by a pending $425 million deal, its sixth of the year. PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust is also aiming to issue a non-agency jumbo MBS in the Redwood mold in the third quarter of 2013. JPMorgan Chase and EverBank Financial issued...[Includes one data chart]

Many people in the mortgage lending and securitization sectors thought the controversial eminent domain plan pushed by Mortgage Resolution Partners was graveyard dead after suffering a few high-profile defeats in various locales throughout the country. They were wrong. Now, a number of interested industry parties are back on the defensive, trying to convince city officials in Richmond, CA, to abandon a new advisory arrangement with MRP and to discourage local government representatives in North Las Vegas, NV, to not reach a similar agreement with the firm. In both instances, the plan being advanced by MRP would involve...

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners recently proposed changes to modeling values of insurance company holdings of non-agency MBS and commercial MBS. The proposal could increase loss forecasts and prompt some sales of the securities, according to analysts. The NAIC proposed using the Treasury strip curve as the discount rate in determining the net-present value of expected loss for modeled securities, as opposed to using each security’s coupon rate to determine expected losses. The standard-setting group governed by state insurance regulators noted that the Treasury strip curve is a risk-free curve. “Using a consistent risk-free rate for all modeled securities in calculating the expected loss reflects...