Since late last year, the FHFA has required that any Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac MSR sale of $5 billion or more – roughly 5,000 loans – be approved by the agency.

MBA believes the imposition of compensatory fees has morphed into a risk-sharing mechanism that shifts the costs of the prolonged foreclosure process from the GSEs onto mortgage servicers.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-ND, a co-sponsor of the Johnson-Crapo bill, also said the measure is moving forward. “This train is leaving the station,” she said. But whether it makes it to the floor of the Senate is another matter.

One of the boldest underwriting moves was taken by TD Bank, which recently announced a portfolio loan that has a downpayment requirement as low as 3 percent.

The current average interest rate on the mortgages is 3.7 percent. Some 64.3 percent of the loans are structured with graduated payments while the rest are fixed-rate mortgages.

Lobbyists tracking the bill now believe that a “negotiated” final measure will not be ready for a full committee vote until possibly mid-May.

A new research report from analysts at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services confirms earlier industry accounts that mortgage servicers are adapting to the CFPB’s newly implemented mortgage servicing rules, and that the rules are having the effects regulators intended. Back in 2013, S&P asked its ranked servicers to complete CFPB questionnaires as part of its semiannual Servicer Evaluation Analytical Methodology process. “We sent a questionnaire with our mid-year SEAM regarding compliance plans and readiness levels, and asked servicers to complete the questionnaires again after Jan. 10 [the implementation date of the new rules], to indicate their levels of compliance,” analysts at the ratings service said. The questionnaire included key areas of compliance: continuity of contact; dual-track foreclosure; servicing transfers; error...

Jumbo MBS issuers typically acquire their loans from a variety of sources. However, only three lenders contributed mortgages to each of the four jumbo MBS issued during the first quarter: Guaranteed Rate, PrimeLending and RPM Mortgage.

Ginnie Mae President Ted Tozer told IMFnews that the sale will clear once “missing files” are cleaned up by Bank of America.

“The examiner-in-charge apparently thought that the owner was lying, and the CFPB now wants to question him under oath,” principal Joe Garrett writes in a note to his clients.