Not only did Citigroup shock the market this week with its decision to exit residential servicing operations, but the move could be the start of an eventual withdrawal from all mortgage banking. For now, the nation’s sixth-largest servicer – and 13th-largest originator – is strongly refuting such talk, but that isn’t stopping the industry from speculating on the megabank’s next move. “If they firmly believe they can’t make money in servicing and cross-selling, then this is...

Real estate investment trust New Residential Investment Corp. has been quietly trolling for mortgage servicing assets the past year and snagged a big one this week when it agreed to buy $97 billion in agency rights from Citigroup. Now comes the hard part: incorporating the receivables into an already fast-growing portfolio and convincing regulators at the Federal Housing Finance Agency and Ginnie Mae officials that it has both the management structure and the financial wherewithal to handle so much product. According to a tally from Inside Mortgage Finance, since early December New Residential has acquired...

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...