Proposed legislation would ban the use of guaranty-fees to pay for non-housing federal expenditures.

A top production executive from CitiMortgage has departed the megabank for the pastures of Texas and Nationstar Mortgage.

Freddie Mac is still owed $1.2 billion from Lehman Brothers, which went bust five years ago. Also, Wells Fargo sells NPLs to Citigroup.

The jumbo mortgage market enjoyed solid growth in new originations last year, but agency securitization programs regained some of the ground lost to the private sector back in 2011, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA in 2012 financed a record $117.6 billion of home mortgages that exceed the traditional jumbo threshold of $417,000. That was up 38.9 percent from the combined agency total back in 2011, and it was roughly twice the growth rate in non-agency jumbo mortgage originations. The non-agency jumbo market rose...[Includes three data charts]

Not only was the jumbo market on a roll last year but the GSEs were major players, according to new figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance.

Among other things, the bill removes from the calculation of fees and points Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan level price adjustments.

Will the White House soon unveil its FHFA director candidate?

Activity in the jumbo MBS market is hopping.Shellpoint Partners is targeting mid-year for its first deal.

The chairman of the House Banking Committee wants clarification from the Federal Reserve on the central bank's transfer of funds to the CFPB.

Roughly 9,000 HUD/FHA workers could lose pay under federal sequestration.