Of course, Ocwen is hardly alone when it comes to having a large overseas mortgage workforce. Wells Fargo and Nationstar, we’re told, also have decent sized back office operations in India…

In the fourth quarter of 2013, Redwood issued one jumbo MBS totaling $325 million and completed whole loan sales of $648 million. Officials at the real estate investment trust said Redwood plans to issue a jumbo MBS in March or April.

Then again, acquirers also may find that companies that need to sell might have a hard time admitting as much. “I’m seeing a ton of interest on the buy-side these days,” said Larry Charbonneau, a principal in Charbonneau & Associates.

The Consumer Financial Freedom and Washington Accountability Act, sponsored by House Financial Services Committee member Rep. Sean Duffy, R-WI, would, among other things, replace the single CFPB director with a five-member commission appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

So, mortgage firms are reducing “overlays” and expanding credit to borrowers in need. Right? Not necessarily.

Overall, the group reported a 5.8 percent increase in total mortgage banking income – which for some firms includes activity not captured in either production or servicing – during the fourth quarter.

Among those buying into MI stocks is Paulson & Co., the legendary hedge fund that made $15 billion by shorting publicly traded subprime firms via the ABX Index in the run-up to the housing bust.

In an interview with IMFnews, Millon said CMC now owns roughly $5 billion in MSRs, compared to just $1.5 billion a year earlier. “We’re buying rights from the members of our cooperative,” Million said.

A spokesman for Ocwen said the company did not like the way the IMFnews story was being “interpreted.” After the story was published early Friday afternoon, Ocwen’s share price began to rise and continued to increase Monday.

The private student-loan sector continues to slowly improve, but defaults and delinquencies are still at elevated levels compared to the period before the financial crisis, according to a new report by analysts at DBRS, based on data from deals that closed between 2002 and 2007. Quarterly gross defaults, as measured as a percentage of loans in repayment, slipped from 1.07 percent in the third quarter of 2013 to 1.00 percent in the fourth quarter. Similarly, the percentage of gross defaults as a percentage of the original pool balance declined from 0.55 percent to 0.50 percent. “Defaults have remained...