What We’re Hearing Certain mortgage bankers are using a four-letter word to describe the trifecta of “final” regulations unveiled by the CFPB the past two weeks, and as you might guess that word isn’t “love.” The rules – servicing, qualified mortgages and loan originator compensation – will shape the industry for years to come... plus other mortgage industry happenings.

Although the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has finalized its servicing regulations, it likely will take a close look at the transfer of mortgage servicing rights – a business that has been booming of late, with most of the activity tied to “legacy” product.

Nationstar Mortgage and KB Home are taking their strategic partnership to another level, setting up a new mortgage company that will provide mortgage banking services to new KB homebuyers across the U.S., the two firms announced.

Real Estate Mortgage Network is on the verge of launching a new correspondent division what will use the trade name HomeBridge, a company official told Inside Mortgage Finance.

Redwood Trust is set to issue its second non-agency jumbo MBS of the year, a $666.13 million security, according to a presale report released today by Kroll Bond Rating Agency. The MBS will largely consist of 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, with 51.4 percent of the originations from First Republic Bank. Plus other mortgage news briefs.

Fannie Mae is ending the practice of assigning different guaranty-fee discounts to the various “affinity groups” or cooperatives that pool mortgages for sale into the secondary market, Inside Mortgage Finance has learned.

Bank of America, which is in the process of selling roughly $308 billion worth of mortgage servicing rights, recently trimmed its servicing staff by at least 700 workers...

Envoy Mortgage, a privately held nonbank, is the latest lender to jump into the correspondent lending arena. On Wednesday the firm issued a statement saying it has hired two industry veterans – Dan Hastings and Todd Cheney – to build and run the new division. Formed in 1997, Envoy has been a retail-only lender funding in 48 states… Plus other mortgage news briefs.

Add former GSE regulator James Lockhart to the growing chorus of industry officials who believe that using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance underwater non-agency mortgages is a bad idea.

Remember the 4.4 million delinquent mortgagors who were done wrong by the nation’s mega-servicers and lost their homes to foreclosure? Remember how the Comptroller of the Currency launched a program in 2011 to let these mortgagors appeal? Well, apparently...