The hiring news isn't all bad in mortgage banking: Skyline Home Loans is looking for loan officers and Highlands recently hired some top executives.

FHFA sued UBS in 2011 over $4.5 billion in RMBS securities that the bank sponsored and $1.8 billion in third party RMBS sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Purchase money lending will increase in 2014 but overall originations could swoon, according to a revised forecast from Fannie Mae.

Loan applications are strong at Citadel, a newly launched nonprime lender. HUD goes on furlough for a day.

It’s no secret that the market for nonperforming mortgages has improved nicely this year, but now there are signs of life in the “re-performing” sector as well, especially among investors that hope to package and securitize the notes. According to Jeana Curro, director of agency MBS strategy for Royal Bank of Scotland, the re-performing MBS market is small, “although not insignificant.” But getting a true handle on MBS backed by re-performing loans can be...

Both supporters and detractors of a House Republican bill aimed at comprehensive mortgage finance reform told members of the House Financial Services Committee this week the proposal has room for improvement, but the author of the proposal is pulling out all the stops to get the legislation on the fast track despite a nearly complete lack of bipartisan support. This week’s hearing, called by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, committee chairman and author of the Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners Act, was designed to gather input on the bill with an eye toward marking up the PATH Act before the House adjourns for its August recess. The bill would put...

With legislation to replace the government-sponsored enterprises not likely to be enacted until after the 2014 election, the Mortgage Bankers Association is proposing five steps administrators can take now to ensure a smooth transition without disrupting the nation’s housing finance system. At a press briefing this week, MBA President and Chief Executive Officer David Stevens rolled out the trade group’s five-point plan that could be immediately implemented by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and/or Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac without the need for legislation. At the top of the MBA’s list and the tallest order of the five recommendations is...

Fear and loathing in the mortgage job market? Movement Mortgage has let several mortgage workers go. Can looser underwriting standards save the day?

Supporters are defending a House Republican proposal to liquidate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and let the private market fill in the gaps. But despite a nearly complete lack of bipartisan support and even doubts from within his own party, the author of the proposal is pushing hard to fast-track the bill. This week, the House Financial Services Committee heard testimony from 11 experts on the Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners Act, introduced last week by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX.“The PATH Act is a comprehensive proposal to create a sustainable housing finance system by ending the federal government’s domination of the housing finance market and give consumers more choices in determining which mortgage product best suits their needs,” said Hensarling.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Treasury Department illegally implemented the so-called sweep amendment last summer that altered Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s preferred stock purchase agreements to seize nearly all the two GSEs’ profits, in direct violation of the 2008 conservatorship legislation, according to investors’ lawsuits filed in federal court last week. Unlike the initial litigation filed by investors last month that challenges the entire 2008 government takeover of Fannie and Freddie, the separate suits filed by hedge-fund Perry Capital and by Fairholme Capital Management claim that Treasury’s August 2012 amendment to the preferred stock purchase agreements violated the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, which placed the GSEs in conservatorship.