The Freddie portfolio includes loans from all 50 states with California receivables having the largest market share at 18.6 percent.

Mortgage M&A historians might recall that last decade, before the financial crisis struck, Countrywide Financial Corp. was in serious talks to buy PHH’s mortgage business...

The FHA has issued emergency guidance for handling loan applications in areas affected by the water contamination crisis in Flint, MI, while the VA called for special relief for affected Michigan borrowers. A spokesperson for the Department of Housing and Urban Development said FHA lenders have been seeking guidance on how to handle single-family housing properties with an FHA-insured mortgage that may be affected by the tainted water supply in Genesee County., MI. The FHA’s two-page guidance stated that a property in the affected areas must first meet the agency’s property acceptability standards. Lenders are required to ensure that each property has a continuing adequate supply of clean, safe and potable drinking water. In addition, they must make sure the property is safe to occupy and free of any health or environmental hazard. HUD’s Single Family Policy Handbook ...

The FHA’s Home Equity Reverse Mortgage Information Technology (HERMIT) system will shift to a new vendor-operated host data center beginning March 21, 2016. Reverse Market Insight (RMI), a provider of data, analysis and portfolio valuation services for the reverse mortgage industry, has been tapped to manage, maintain and operate HERMIT. Launched in October 2012, HERMIT is an online, web-based automated system that monitors and tracks the FHA’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage portfolio and automates insurance claim payments. HERMIT will shut down temporarily from 7 p.m., March 16, to 8 a.m., March 21, in order to complete the transition. The FHA said there would be no changes to the system’s functionality during transition to the host data center. User IDs and passwords for accessing HERMIT will remain unchanged. Following HERMIT’s transition to the ...

“I think that criticism is badly misplaced,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray during a speech before the Consumer Bankers Association in Phoenix.

PHH has retained Credit Suisse Securities and J.P. Morgan as financial advisors and Jones Day as legal advisor “to assist in the process.”

Among the top 10 non-agency jumbo mortgage producers in 2015 just two are nonbanks: PHH Mortgage and Redwood Trust.

In some quarters, experts wonder how much more nonbanks can grow given capital concerns and interest rate volatility.

In dollars and cents, additional spending at Fannie totaled $726 million over the four-year period, while at Freddie the reading was a more benign $376 million.

Zais said a strategic review of the REIT will continue, including exploration of a possible sale or even a liquidation of the company’s assets.