A day after Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee delayed a vote on some of President Trump’s nominations by refusing to attend a confirmation hearing, Republicans used a parliamentary maneuver to push through a unanimous favorable vote on two of them. Mortgage industry observers were expecting positive votes this week from the committee on the nominations of Steve Mnuchin as the new head of the U.S. Treasury and Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-AL, as the next U.S. Attorney General. However, Democrat members of the committee refused...

The Mortgage Bankers Association this week released an updated proposal to establish multiple privately owned guarantors to promote competition in the marketplace. In the MBA’s blueprint, the guarantors would be organized as privately-owned utilities with a regulated rate of return. “The more market participants that compete...

Real estate brokerage firm Redfin is preparing to offer purchase mortgages to homebuyers who use the firm’s real estate agents. The company announced Redfin Mortgage last week, promising a “digital mortgage,” low interest rates and faster closing times. The new lender will be led by Jason Bateman, a former executive vice president of mortgage operations at BBVA Compass. “When your real estate agent, title professional and lender work together, you win,” he said. “Lenders should spend their time determining which loan is right for a customer, not looking for new customers.” Initially, Redfin Mortgage plans...

Fairholme: “Only the disingenuous would assert that recapitalization of these companies would take decades and come at taxpayers’ expense…”

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods is worried about the prepayment risk that comes with owning so much Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac servicing rights…

The largest Fannie/Freddie servicers are still Wells Fargo, JPMorgan and Bank of America, but all three continue to shrink their exposure to GSE product...

The trade group’s blueprint also throws cold water on any piecemeal “recap and release” plan for Fannie and Freddie.

"The legal challenges [to firing Cordray] must be very legitimate or they would have tossed him by now," said one industry official...

The last company to go on an MSR acquisition binge this fierce was Ocwen Financial…

Fortress also owns roughly 70 percent of Nationstar Mortgage, a stake it has held for quite some time.