“Bank, nonbank – it doesn’t matter to us. We look at where the risk to the consumer is and we try to execute our program against that,” said Peggy Twohig, assistant director in the CFPB’s Office of Supervision Policy.

The two have petitioned Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to designate Fannie and Freddie as SIFIs. Being an SIFI means the two would be subject to higher capital standards and greater scrutiny – as though the two aren’t under enough scrutiny as it is.

Servicing deals, both flow and bulk, continue to hit the market.

A group called The 60 Plus Association has released TV and radio ads in seven states targeting Senate Banking Committee Members who are sponsoring GSE reform legislation. The group claims the bills “allow the government to take over the mortgage industry in an action 'disturbingly similar' to Obamacare.”

To date, the use of eminent domain to restructure residential loans has garnered a ton of headlines in the financial press, but has posted little in the way of success.

Whatever happened to the sale of Cole Taylor Mortgage, which has been in the works for nine months or so? Good question. When we asked one source close to the deal, his response was this: “Think of the Energizer Bunny but with fairly old batteries.

The CFPB is beginning to look into abandoned properties and the phenomenon known as “zombie” foreclosures, a top bureau official indicated recently. “The term zombie foreclosure refers to a situation in which a borrower has moved out of a home after the lender has started a foreclosure,” according to attorney Michael Waldron, a partner and practice leader of the mortgage banking unit at Ballard Spahr. However, “because the lender did not complete the foreclosure, title was never officially transferred and remains with the borrower, who may be unaware that the foreclosure was never completed.”

Agreeing to speak only on background, some mortgage participants thought that ORI’s recapitalization plan raised serious concerns among potential investors.

The serious delinquency rate on servicer portfolios hasn’t improved much in the past year, from 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 5.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Colony American Homes has come to market with a $513.6 million security backed by single-family rental homes, but some players in the space are starting to wonder if the returns on the bond will be anything special. Moody’s Investors Service and Kroll Bond Rating Agency rated the deal, which marks the second SFR securitization in four months. The other was a $479 million deal from Deutsche Bank and the Blackstone Group, which turned out to be oversubscribed. KBRA’s ratings on the Colony bond range...