It’s a buyer’s market for mortgage firms these days, and former Cole Taylor Mortgage Chief Executive Willie Newman couldn’t be in a better place: He’s teamed up with Stone Point Capital, a hedge fund that has committed several hundred million dollars to the purchase of residential lenders. “We have a lot of plans,” Newman told Inside Mortgage Finance. “We plan to be in originations, servicing, capital markets and multi-channel production.” It was...

Look for the various lawsuits filed by private owners of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock against the federal government to take a “very long time to be decided,” as the courts may take up to a year to resolve just the introductory motions, according to a legal expert. Beyond that, the litigation over shares in the two government-sponsored enterprises could stretch out to the U.S. Supreme Court. Brooklyn Law School Professor David Reiss, speaking during a Bloomberg Industries webinar last week, noted that lawsuits stemming from the savings and loan debacle of 20 years ago give a sense of the possible timeframe, but litigation brought by disenfranchised Fannie and Freddie investors against the government offers an entirely different and deeper set of legal complexities. “These are...

A lack of overwhelming support in the Senate for legislation to reform the government-sponsored enterprises has shifted the housing finance policy debate from reform to preservation. If Congress fails to act, the Federal Housing Finance Agency is set to drive mortgage policy for years to come. Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, initially delayed the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs’ recent markup of S. 1217, the Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act, in an effort to increase support for the GSE reform bill. But they failed to gain favor with a number of liberal members of the committee, and the bill ultimately passed on a 13-9 vote seen as dooming prospects for comprehensive action on GSE reform in Congress. Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, and Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, were...

Two trade groups expressed their support for the nomination of Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan to be the director of the Office of Management and Budget and Julian Castro as his successor at HUD. The Mortgage Bankers Association praised Donovan for his work on critical initiatives, such as housing revitalization, recovery efforts related to Hurricane Sandy, borrower assistance programs and the HUD/FHA budget. Donovan would replace Sylvia Mathews Burwell, currently the director of OMB, who was chosen to replace Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Both the MBA and the National Association of Realtors praised...

Former employees of the firm told IMFnews that they are perplexed as to why the company’s owners did not file a bankruptcy filing in federal court.

Ocwen Financial, once again, ranked first among all subprime servicers with a portfolio balance of $105.78 billion at March 31, a decline of 31.7 percent over the past 12 months.

In his report, Guggenheim analyst Jaret Seiberg writes, “There is still anger in Congress over having to put cash into the enterprises in the first time."

Lack of Congressional funding, however, has put a damper on the initiative. And lenders generally oppose proposals where they would be charged a subsidy fee.

Investors interviewed by IMFnews weren’t sure what to think of the latest news from Ellie Mae.

Despite the not-so-good news on applications, one warehouse lender suggested to IMFnews that larger lenders are suffering much more than smaller firms.