It's common knowledge in the industry that the Treasury Department is working on a recap-and-release plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. To pull off such a massive undertaking the government will need an investment banker. But who?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this week fined mortgage servicer BSI Financial Services, Irving, TX, just over $230,000 for illegal mortgage servicing practices. A new consent order from the agency lays out the details.

States proposed standards in 2015 to increase oversight of nonbank lenders and servicers but didn’t act to finalize them. The new chairman of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors is making the issue a priority.

In one of the largest M&A deals of the year, Freedom has agreed to buy RoundPoint Mortgage but details are hard to come by, including the issue of debt assumption. Meanwhile, industry advisors fear that declining interest rates might put other transactions on hold.

In a speech this week before the annual secondary market conference of the Mortgage Bankers Association, FHFA Director Mark Calabria sounded a little bit like the Mark Calabria of the Cato Institute.

We're halfway through the second quarter and MSR sales are middling, a byproduct of lower interest rates and what may lie ahead. However, dealmakers believe 2H could bring a boom in sales activity.

The total mortgage delinquency rate among large mortgage servicers in March was at the second-lowest level in the post-crisis era. A number of factors are contributing to strong loan performance.

New Jersey recently passed licensing requirements for mortgage servicers, taking the tally to about 40 states. More than 20 states also have licensing requirements for investors in servicing.

The National Association of Realtors this week picked apart FHFA's plan to recapitalize the GSEs and release them from conservatorship. NAR, by the way, favors a model where the GSEs are morphed into shareholder-owned utilities.