Conix Inc. is in the market with an MBS backed by nonperforming mortgages. Could other deals be far behind?

Cole Taylor Mortgage is getting serious about the servicing business. It purchased a portfolio from Liberty Savings and plans to start its own in-house platform.

There is at least one curiosity in the GSE draft bill: any individual who ever served as a director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency is prohibited from serving as a board member on the new Federal Mortgage Insurance Corp.

Ellington Management under new mortgage chief Steve Abreu may go on a purchase tear, rolling up companies.

Despite the vocal support of progressives, especially advocates of principal reduction of GSE-held loans, Rep. Watt’s nomination to head FHFA is far from a sure thing.

It looks like a sweet deal for Nationstar: Merrill Lynch helps sell its unsecured debt and then off loads some of its legacy MSRs to the nonbank.

We continue to hear reports that certain commercial banks are discouraging their residential loan officers to take the state test and get licensed.

Speculators have been gobbling up GSE junior preferred and common, hoping for a payout down the road tied to either the resumption of dividends or money that might come from a recovery fund.

The auction market for nonperforming mortgages is picking up a full head of steam this year and could be bolstered by securitizations, according to investors and advisors who play in that space. Gordon Albrecht, executive vice president of FCI Lender Services, said he has a hedge fund client that is presently working on a $40 million securitization of nonperforming residential loans. Albrecht said he could not identify the client, though he noted that Wells Fargo is involved in the transaction along with a foreign bank. He added...

Even a fraction of the shadow inventory falling into foreclosure could considerably swell HUD and GSE ownership of REO properties.