Industry observers believe that FHFA Director Mel Watt – who has been on the job since early January – wants to open up the “credit box” for low- and moderate-income borrowers.

The good news for the mortgage industry is that the bulk of Dodd-Frank-required mortgage rules have already been issued.

Is Fannie Mae’s stock a screaming buy as Pershing Square hedge fund chief Bill Ackman recently suggested?

Unlike a lot of other housing-market data, the MBS figures are not seasonally adjusted, though they are seasonally affected.

"The ECB has a real problem on its hands," said Barry Habib, who runs MBS Highway, an analytics firm that offers lenders advice on when to lock rates.

Individual accountability is the regulatory catchphrase of the moment not only at the CFPB but at the Securities and Exchange Commission and state regulatory agencies as well.

Some in the industry are concerned that HAMP interest-rate resets, which begin later this year, could cause defaults on modified loans to increase, lowering the number of successful modifications under the program.

Treasury and the FHFA not only acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” in executing the Third Amendment to the Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements with the GSEs, the agencies ignored “salient data,” including Fannie’s and Freddie’s tens of billions of dollars in deferred tax assets.

“We have a lot of plans,” Newman told IMFnews. “We plan to be in originations, servicing, capital markets and multi-channel production.”

Western Asset Management has a "ton of fire power" when it comes to buying non-agency mortgages, said one source.