It may be temporary, but residential mortgage debt outstanding fell in the fourth quarter. For buyers of servicers that means less product is available (in theory).

Will investors think twice about buying mortgage servicing rights because of the sabre rattling from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?

The more detailed 'needs-to-improve' list includes Bank of America, CitiMortgage, Nationstar Mortgage, Ocwen Loan Servicing, Select Portfolio Servicing and Wells Fargo.

Observers note that Barclays Bank is in the process of settling on a recent large NPL auction as well.

By itself, BofA accounted for 79.3 percent of the $606.3 billion shrinkage in commercial bank MSR portfolios during 2013. Where did all that servicing go to?

Private-equity firms such as Orange Capital and EJF Capital have been gobbling up shares in PHH Corp. the past year, believing the stock is undervalued. Among other things, “smart money” investors have noticed that the liquidation value of its mortgage servicing rights almost equals the entire company’s market capitalization rate. But that doesn’t mean PHH Corp. will be successful in its attempt to unlock shareholder value by selling off parts of the company, including its mortgage banking franchise and automobile fleet business. “The only thing that’s certain about PHH is that it’s trading below book value,” said one mortgage executive who has conducted business with the firm. Late this week, PHH common was selling...

Whether a servicer was a bank or a nonbank doesn’t appear to have played much of a role in terms of performance in the non-agency portion of the Home Affordable Modification Program, according to the latest assessments by the Treasury Department. Six servicers were found to need “moderate” improvement: three banks and three nonbanks. HAMP incentive payments in the future could be withheld if the firms don’t improve their performance. The needs-to-improve list includes Bank of America, CitiMortgage, Nationstar Mortgage, Ocwen Loan Servicing, Select Portfolio Servicing and Wells Fargo. The other major HAMP servicer, JPMorgan Chase, was found to have largely satisfied HAMP performance requirements, based on assessments for the fourth quarter of 2013. Among the seven largest HAMP servicers, only nonbanks had...

"I'm pulling my old firm out of the mothballs," Glen Corso told IMFnews.

Springleaf is no longer making new real estate-backed loans, but it continues to shed legacy mortgages.

Citadel is the most active non-agency, non-prime lender in the U.S. In an interview with IMFnews, company founder and CEO Dan Perl said, “We’ll do $11 million to $12 million, at least" for the month of March.