In a new regulatory filing Bill Erbey's Salt Pond is described as a provider of merchant banking services.

HARP volume fell a stunning 75.9 percent in 2014. So is it time to stick a fork in the program and call it a day?

In less than 10 months, a volume-heavy private-label origination deal that PHH Mortgage has with Wall Street giant Merrill Lynch is set to expire, potentially blowing a hole in its production machine. According to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, PHH acknowledges that “there can be no assurances that the agreement will be renewed on favorable terms, if at all.” If the deal were to be cancelled, PHH could see...

Most companies engaged in mortgage banking made a profit last year despite a rough first quarter, but nearly all participants earned less than in 2013. A new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends, an affiliated newsletter, found that a diverse group of 30 public companies reported a combined $13.942 billion in mortgage-banking income for 2014. Different lenders report these earnings differently, but they generally include production, servicing, secondary market and the net effect of hedges and legal costs. For the 30 lenders, mortgage-banking earnings for the year were...[Includes one data chart]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to provide a lot more transparency in the fledgling process of selling nonperforming loans, or NPLs, and to make sure borrowers are taken care of in the process. Freddie this week announced details on its second NPL sale; Fannie has not yet done such a transaction. But both government-sponsored enterprises are expected to emphasize selling their less-liquid assets, such as NPLs and non-agency mortgage securities, as they continue to downsize their retained portfolios. The new guidelines cover...

The bid price for “flow” mortgage servicing rights is beginning to soften, having fallen from the peaks seen in the summer of 2014, according to both investors and certain advisors running the deals. But if a buyer of flow product is looking for bargains, it’s not likely to happen anytime soon. In other words, prices have drifted down, but are hardly cheap. In fact, a handful of sources contend that Nationstar Mortgage – one of the most active flow buyers of the past year – has ceased...

Mortgage delinquencies continue to decline, prompting servicers to focus on customer service and refinances as opposed to loan modifications. The Inside Mortgage Finance Large Servicer Delinquency Index declined by 32.7 basis points in the fourth quarter of 2014 compared with the previous quarter. The 24 servicers tracked by the index had a delinquency rate of 6.34 percent in the fourth quarter compared with a rate of 7.59 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013. The Inside Mortgage Finance data are not seasonally adjusted. Improvements in performance were seen...[Includes one data chart]

The researchers said their data included seven of the 10 largest servicers based on market share.

“If something goes wrong, Ocwen will be on the hook,” said this source. “But it’s really clean stuff.”

Although George Ellison’s salary was not disclosed in the press release announcing his employment with the company, a subsequent filing provided details: $450,000 per year, another $450,000 in incentive bonuses...