Fidelity, a market leader in title insurance, has a market capitalization rate of $10.6 billion and is headed by William Foley, age 70, who has a history of spinning off companies.

Interactive Mortgage Advisors, MIAC and The Prestwick Group are working on deals as well.

Many shops continue to recruit for LOs but with the caveat they have strong ties to Realtors and homebuilders.

A unique stop-advance feature included in the jumbo MBS issued by Redwood Trust late last week was viewed favorably by investors, according to officials at the real estate investment trust. “We are pleased not only with the pricing execution on this transaction, but also with the level and depth of AAA investor interest,” Marty Hughes, Redwood’s CEO, said this week. The $356.45 million Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2015-2 included...

It was clear from a panel discussion at the Urban Institute this week that MSRs have grown in importance as a form of collateral...

Delinquencies on commercial MBS hit a post-recession low in January before inching up 10 basis points to 4.72 percent the next month, according to figures compiled by Fitch Ratings Service. Then again, Fitch appears to be mostly bullish on the sector, noting that the uptick in late payments was caused by a change in its methodology and that under the old rules delinquencies would have fallen to 4.55 percent. The ratings change excluded deals backed by wireless towers, outdoor advertising and what it calls “certain other non-traditional transactions.” Hotel collateral has...

One advisor reminded us that in the world mortgage M&A many potential deals go south...

The new sunset date is December 31, 2016.

It’s not clear whether thousands of other – much smaller – mortgage servicers grew enough to offset the decline in the top tier.

PennyMac Financial Services also originated $8.9 billion of home mortgages in 1Q, an 11.3 percent increase compared to the previous quarter.