The Republican-controlled House of Representatives, with the help of 10 renegade Democrats, voted last week to scale back some of the power and independence of the CFPB. As previously reported, H.R. 3193, the Consumer Financial Freedom and Washington Accountability Act, sponsored by Rep. Sean Duffy, R-WI, would replace the single CFPB director with a five-member, bipartisan commission appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The goal here is "to ensure that a diversity of viewpoints informs the CFPB's regulatory and enforcement agenda, and to conform the CFPB's governance to that of other federal agencies charged with consumer or investor protection," according to the GOP contingent on the House Financial Services Committee.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is proving to be a burden to small banks throughout the country and threatens to cut off a variety of product offerings for many of the borrowers they serve, according to a new study by George Mason University's Mercatus Center. "Our initial analysis suggests that Dodd-Frank is having significant effects on small banks and their customers. A large majority of small banks view Dodd-Frank as more burdensome than the Bank Secrecy Act, a regulatory regime that banks widely regard as very burdensome," said the study, which was prepared by a trio of academics, including senior research fellow Hester Peirce, former senior counsel to Sen. Richard Shelby, R-AL, on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

“Revenues at some of these firms are going to take a nosedive over the next year or so,” said Anthony Garritano, founder of the Progress in Lending Association, an industry think-tank.

The year’s top five FHA lenders – Wells Fargo, Quicken Loans, JPMorgan Chase, Freedom Mortgage and Bank of America – combined for 21.9 percent, or $46.0 billion, of total agency production, down 34.6 percent quarter over quarter.

Ocwen’s subprime receivables were purchased in the secondary market from other firms trying to exit the space.

HomeStreet might participate in or sponsor non-agency MBS going forward.

In an interview with IMFnews, Habib confirmed his resignation, but declined to say anything further about the company’s future.

The preliminary findings are not pretty: 55 percent of lender/servicers lost money in 4Q compared to just 4 percent for the first nine months of 2013.

After two years of significant improvements, the total past-due rate for subprime mortgages has stalled since the first quarter of 2012. Special servicers continue to grow their subprime holdings in an effort to work out the poorly performing mortgages. The total past-due rate for subprime mortgages at the end of the fourth quarter of 2013 was 20.82 percent, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, up from 20.14 percent in the previous quarter and from 20.30 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. The past-due rate on subprime mortgages peaked in ... [Includes one data chart]

The Securities and Exchange Commission was set to vote on a final rule earlier this month that would set new disclosure requirements for non-agency MBS, but the agency is still considering how the final rule should be applied as industry participants clamor for further changes. The SEC this week re-opened the comment period regarding the pending requirements for disclosures on MBS and ABS, the so-called Reg. AB2 rule. The rule was first proposed in 2010 and re-proposed in 2011. The comment period on the second proposal closed...