Top Democrats on Capitol Hill are peeved that the Justice Department is not making the prosecution of mortgage lender and servicer abuses much of a priority, and they are pressing Attorney General Eric Holder for a meeting to discuss what to do about it. Their ire was raised by a recent report from the DOJ’s Inspector General that found, among other things, that the department had not prioritized the investigation of mortgage fraud and that it reported unreliable, inflated statistics about the scope of its prosecutorial efforts. In a letter to the DOJ, Reps. Elijah Cummings, D-MD, and Maxine Waters, D-CA, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, focused...

The Johnson-Crapo bill would subject Quicken and all the other nonbanks to FDIC-like examinations.

The total amount of principal reduction and refinancing provided by banks for consumer relief under the landmark $25 billion national servicing agreement far exceeded what was required in the agreement, according to final credit reports filed by settlement monitor Joseph Smith. Filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia this week, the reports confirmed that Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, CitiBank and Ally have met their consumer relief and restructuring obligations under the settlement. In total, the five companies provided...

W.J. Bradley Mortgage Capital announced a number of new jumbo mortgage products this week. Among the offerings is a loan with a 10 percent downpayment requirement for balances of up to $850,000.

There has been talk in the market that JPM would unload some of its “high touch” MSRs this year, but so far brokers that play in the space have reported no scheduled auctions.

Early in the morning, Ocwen’s share price was up almost 3 percent, but by noon had settled down. Trading volume was slightly above average.

The report, conducted by Alvarez & Marshall, was making the rounds in Washington Wednesday morning. John O’Neill, a managing director in the evaluation firm of Alvarez & Marsal, confirmed to IMFnews that his company conducted an evaluation on the GSEs for the Blackstone Group.

M&A specialists believe that some lenders obtain their Ginnie approvals merely for the purpose of increasing their franchise value without having solid plans to issue securities.

Richmond's mayor said the new rehabilitation program can be completed in addition to eminent domain. However, significant opposition to ED from mortgage industry participants appears to have changed how the city plans to implement its latest plan.

The only sector that has a higher securitization rate is the government-insured market, where Ginnie Mae production represented 98.5 percent of FHA and VA lending.