Republicans Again Introduce Legislation to Change CFPB Leadership Structure to a Board. Republican Sens. Deb Fischer (NE), Ron Johnson (WI) and John Barrasso (WY), recently introduced S. 105, legislation that would replace the CFPB’s single-director leadership structure with a bipartisan, five-member board. ... Cordray Assures CFPB Staff Re: PHH Dispute in October Email. In an Oct. 17, 2016, email to “all hands” at the CFPB, a copy of which was obtained by Inside the CFPB, the agency’s director, Richard Cordray, offered some words of reassurance in light of the decision by the three-judge panel of the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals that found the bureau’s leadership structure was unconstitutional. ...

For all of 2016, Redwood came to market with just three jumbo MBS deals.

This source continued: “If only Castro had put the MIP cut through right after the actuarial report came out, we probably wouldn’t be talking about this right now.”

The last company to go on an MSR acquisition binge this fierce was Ocwen Financial…

On the extreme end, 30 percent expressed dissatisfaction with their current LOS but did not say whether they were ready to toss it overboard…

Fortress also owns roughly 70 percent of Nationstar Mortgage, a stake it has held for quite some time.

The CFPB Office of Inspector General recently initiated an evaluation of the bureau’s use of vendors to support its analysis of fair lending compliance, the OIG indicated in its latest work plan. The OIG begins by noting, among other responsibilities, the CFPB is charged with providing oversight and enforcement of federal laws intended to ensure the fair, equitable and nondiscriminatory access to credit. But what may surprise many in the industry is to learn that the agency relies on external vendors to help fulfill this responsibility. “Our objective is to assess whether the CFPB effectively mitigates the risk associated with the use of vendors to support fair lending analysis, particularly with respect to potential conflicts of interest,” said the OIG ...

New Residential, a publicly traded REIT, will obtain the rights to roughly 780,000 loans ($97 billion) guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...

Bulk transfers of Freddie Mac MSRs also increased dramatically in 4Q16, more than doubling to $17.52 billion…

Keefe Bruyette & Woods questioned what would happen if the GSEs were dismantled in its recent financial podcast. Bose George, analyst with KBW, said, given the increase in guaranty fees, it’s clear that at least for higher quality loans, the private sector is ready to price just as competitively. “But we see two risks if the GSEs go away,” he said. George noted that the five trillion dollars worth of GSE MBS guarantees, which currently have no capital behind them, will need capital if that moves over to the banking system. And he said it’s safe to assume that will translate into higher mortgage rates.