Flagstar, which ranks eighth among all originators according to Inside Mortgage Finance, funded $6.4 billion of home mortgages in 4Q, a 17 percent decline from the prior period.

A key factor in the upswing in private MI share of Fannie/Freddie business was the relatively steadier volume in purchase-mortgage securitization compared to refinance loans.

The non-agency MBS market is stuck in "limbo until we know where the GSEs are going,” said Steve Abrahams, head of securitization and MBS research at Deutsche Bank Securities.

The hunger for GSE speculation is also causing some investors to buy Fannie/Freddie common which has been rising of late, but not by much. However, one GSE watcher believes that buying the common, "is a fool’s game."

In terms of market effect, a DocuTech executive said that because of the new CFPB rules, "credit is going to slow down for a little while, maybe a month or so."

The lender also recently formed a real estate investment trust, Parkside Mortgage Trust. Matt Ostrander, Parkside’s CEO, said the REIT plans to issue a non-agency MBS later this year or in 2015.

Hoping to jump start the non-agency MBS market, the Structured Finance Industry Group plans to establish a limited number of options on various rep and warrant issues.

Last week, the CFPB ordered a Missouri mortgage lender, Fidelity Mortgage Corp., and its former owner and current president, Mark Figert, to pay $81,076 to settle allegations it funneled “illegal kickbacks” to a bank in exchange for loan referrals. The bureau charged that Fidelity, a St. Louis-based non-depository mortgage lender, entered into an agreement with an unnamed bank in which the bank referred potential borrowers to Fidelity in exchange for kickbacks. The kickbacks were disguised as inflated lease payments...

While most mortgage lenders continue to insist they won’t originate new loans that fall outside the CFPB’s “qualified mortgage” parameters, one notable exception is San Francisco-based Bank of the West, which recently announced it will continue to offer interest-only mortgages, despite the fact such loans do not qualify for QM status. “We extensively reviewed the CFPB’s rules and found them broadly consistent with how Bank of the West has always done business,” said Paul Wible, senior executive vice president and head of the bank’s...

The CFPB’s recently released semiannual regulatory agenda indicates the bureau plans to remain on a robust mortgage-related rulemaking schedule, although not at the blistering pace seen one year ago when it issued a handful of game-changing rules for the mortgage lending and servicing sectors. The CFPB said it is “continuing rulemaking activities to assist in the full implementation of, and facilitate compliance with, various mortgage-related final rules issued by the bureau in January 2013, strengthening consumer protections involving...