One veteran mortgage trade group official, a staunch Republican no less, told us that Lawsky is an “honest and bright guy,” adding that he understands the issues.

The share price of Ocwen Financial recently fell to a 52-week low of $18.47, a 70 percent decline that has wiped out at least $5 billion in market equity.

Wells Fargo's origination market share keeps dropping, but is still more than double that of its closest competitor, JPMorgan Chase.

Once word leaks out that a mortgage company is a takeover target, many LOs start weighing their options, contacting competitors who tried to recruit them in the past.

Meanwhile, 84 lenders contributed to Redwood’s pending issuance, led by First Republic Bank with a 32.6 percent share.

In three-plus years of originating subprime mortgages, Citadel has suffered two foreclosures and a handful of delinquencies, but no losses.

2014 is going to go down as the worst year in new mortgage origination volume since the turn of the century, but it’s clearly not as bad as many have feared. Mortgage lenders produced an estimated $335 billion in new single-family loans during the third quarter, a solid 9.8 percent increase from the previous period, according to a new Inside MortgageFinance ranking and analysis. Significantly, the first and second quarters of this year were...[Includes two data charts]

While originations of loans that don’t meet standards for qualified mortgages can subject lenders to increased liability, underwriting and compensating factors can help limit risks from non-QMs, according to Moody’s Investors Service. “Non-QM loans typically carry higher default risks than QM loans, but lenders can mitigate those risks by originating loans with attributes that compensate for the weaknesses that put the loans outside of the QM guidelines,” analysts at Moody’s said in a report published late last week. The rating service said...

Production of rural housing loans with a Department of Agriculture guaranty is expected to end 2014 far below the record volume originated last year, according to agency estimates. USDA Section 502 guaranteed homeownership obligations in fiscal 2014 totaled $19.1 billion, down from last year’s $22.4 billion, according to data recently disclosed by the agency. Texas led...[Includes one data chart]

Ocwen Financial has a huge mismatch between the size of its $400 billion servicing portfolio and its new originations. Then again, its MSRs are running off...