The seller of the MSRs was identified as a “subsidiary of a publicly traded company established in 1995.”

Upwards of $500 billion of mortgage servicing rights could change hands this year. But maybe that estimate is too low...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency surprised no one when it announced a fifth, and final, extension of the Home Affordable Refinance Program for underwater Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans. But industry experts are intrigued by the prospect of a new streamlined refi program for the two government-sponsored enterprises. Analysts from Barclays said an extension was widely expected by the market and, as a result, “may not have much of an effect on seasoned cohort valuations.” FHFA Director Mel Watt announced...

Annaly remained the biggest REIT investor in MBS, although its holdings were down 14.9 percent from the fourth quarter.

More trouble for Ocwen: the corporate jet has been yanked!

Mortgage originators are foregoing lending to borrowers who are more likely to become delinquent to avoid strict and unrealistic FHA timelines and cost limits, according to an Urban Institute study. Results of the study, which was issued in December, were again highlighted during a recent Housing Finance Policy Center seminar on servicing at the Urban Institute in Washington, DC. Citing the study she wrote, Laurie Goodman, director of the HFPC, said regulatory uncertainty and a broken servicer-compensation model were partly responsible for tight credit. The high cost of servicing non-performing mortgages and regulatory uncertainty regarding the treatment of delinquent borrowers have made lenders apprehensive about making loans that have even a slight chance of defaulting, she said. Long foreclosure delays in judicial states, burdensome foreclosure guidelines and apparently ...

A new regulatory relief bill drafted by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-AL, would guarantee that the common securitization platform project managed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be open to all MBS issuers “as soon as practicable,” and structured as a nonprofit utility. The legislation, which also expands the risk-transfer activities of the two government-sponsored enterprises, lays the groundwork for the CSP being transferred away from the GSEs and managed by a third-party provider. But that doesn’t mean...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is trying to put a dollar amount on damages it believes Nomura Holdings and RBS Securities should pay after a federal judge found the companies liable in connection with Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s pre-crisis investments in non-agency MBS. Judge Denise Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said the complex case boiled down to whether the defendants accurately described in the offering documents the mortgages that underlie the securities sold to the government-sponsored enterprises. It was...

Ocwen announced the sale of the $45 billion early this spring, but never identified the buyer.

The volume of new mortgage originations with primary mortgage-insurance coverage held steady during the first quarter of 2015, but there was a noticeable shift toward the government MI programs, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking. Private mortgage insurers wrote coverage on $45.24 billion of new conventional originations during the first quarter, a 5.3 percent decline from the fourth quarter of last year. But FHA and Veterans Administration loan originations were up over the same period, by 5.5 percent and 6.0 percent, respectively. Based on Ginnie Mae securitization data, the volume of new rural-housing loans insured by the Department of Agriculture fell...[Includes three data charts]