The chairman and CEO of CapWealth Advisors – a private equity firm with stakes in the GSEs – was critical of all the housing reform bills introduced so far and the premise that Fannie and Freddie need to be wound down to affect reform.

Since late last year, the FHFA has decreed that it must approve any GSE servicing sale of 25,000 loans or more, which translates into roughly $5 billion of product.

Why doesn’t the MBA, NAHB and National Association of Realtors just come out and say what they really mean, which is this: Leave Fannie and Freddie alone, return them to their shareholders and they’ll never buy another ALT A or subprime mortgage again.

“Not only will FHA continue to go after the big banks, but they’re going after the mid-sized banks as well,” said Andrew Henscel, whose firm defends originators.

Ocwen's stock has been floundering of late, but its payroll is headed north on a rocket.

The only spurt of growth in the MBS market was in the non-agency sector, where new issuance was up 36.5 percent from the fourth quarter.

“Watt will want to draw a line of demarcation between him and DeMarco,” said one source. “Going forward, I think we’ll see an emphasis on average credit scores funded and even servicing performance.”

One ad on the radio sounds like The 60 Plus Association is doing the Lord’s work for the pension funds of fire fighters and policemen. After all, public pensions owned GSE stock prior to the crash and lost a bundle.

Mounting opposition from both the left and the right, a month-long wait to mark-up and newly filed competing legislation in the House could doom the already tenuous effort by two senior senators to move a GSE reform bill this year, say industry observers.Given the need for speed and a closing legislative window, last week’s announcement by Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, that the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee would mark up their housing finance reform package on April 29 – well over a month after the bill’s initial March 16 rollout – is not seen as a good sign.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has sent a draft 2014 Conservatorship Scorecard to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for review, but it remains unclear how different it will be from the GSE goals the FHFA set for last year. According to industry officials who have been briefed on the matter, the scorecard will likely be released by month’s end. The scorecard was the brainchild of former FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco, who led the agency for more than four years before former Rep. Mel Watt, D-NC, assumed a five-year term as the agency’s director in early January.