"Contrary to the fable told by the left, the root cause of the financial crisis was not deregulation but dumb regulation," said House Financial Services Committee chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX.

Declining interest rates don't appear to have affected the servicing auction market much.

Thanks to its settlement with California regulators, Ocwen's share price is on the rise. But for how long?

The half-percent annual premium reduction the FHA announced recently will likely enable the agency to reclaim the high loan-to-value segment of the mortgage market from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to analysts. Speaking with some originators that have been looking at the best way to securitize high LTV loans, Deustche Bank securities analysts said the lower FHA annual premium would put pressure on the government-sponsored enterprises to lower the cost of their guarantees. “The grapevine has anticipated for months that [g-fees] have little chance of going up and more chance of going down,” the analysts said. “But the specific risk triggered by the FHA move is that the cost of credit will now drop for high-LTV conventional borrowers.” Even before the FHA policy shift, private mortgage insurers have been pressuring the Federal Housing Finance Agency to ...

First-time homebuyers accounted for close to half of all purchase mortgages in the agency market in 2014, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. Activity in the sector is also projected to increase, helped by low interest rates, a reduction in FHA premium and the government-sponsored enterprises’ low-downpayment programs. Some $224.35 billion in mortgages to first-time homebuyers were included in agency mortgage-backed securities issued in 2014. The loans accounted for 43.3 percent of all purchase mortgages included in agency MBS during the year. Wells Fargo had...[Includes two data charts]

Still, the four super-sized U.S. banks – those with more than $1 trillion in assets – continue to rank in the top five GSE sellers.

Is Ocwen the seller of the MSRs?

Meanwhile, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continued to get less of their business from their five biggest customers.

Fannie's "Collateral Underwriter" will provide up to 20 comparables and appraisers will have to defend the comps they use...

“It’s hard to believe the FHFA will release the PMIER rules without doing something on LLPAs,” said one official.