Freedom has big expansion plans for the new year. Company CEO and founder Stan Middleman recently told IMFnews Daily that he plans to hire between 200 and 500 residential loan officers in 2014.

A few months ago, sources close to the BofA case, said the FHFA was hoping for a settlement in the range of $13 billion.

Will well-known mortgage trainer Barry Habib stick with Residential Finance Corp., a company whose assets are in the process of being sold? It’s hard to say since RFC isn’t answering questions on about the firm’s future.

Ratings on servicer advance asset-backed securities issued by Home Loan Servicing Solutions and Nationstar Mortgage could be downgraded due to a change in rating criteria by Standard & Poor’s that was implemented after the ABS were issued.

The new requirements become effective for FHA case numbers assigned on or after March 11, 2014. Comments are due by Feb. 10, 2014.

At September 30, Flagstar had capitalized the MSRs on its balance sheet at 107 basis points.

Ginnie Mae chief Ted Tozer noted: “We want aggressive outreach to find out what the issues are. If they aren’t issuing, we want to know why."

Freddie Mac reported new buyback demands on $3.3 billion of mortgages during the third quarter, a stunning 31 percent increase from the previous period.

Some 44 percent of mods on portfolio loans by eight large banks and thrifts include principal reduction in the third quarter of 2013.

It's not every day that a REIT gains access to a Federal Home Loan Bank. This REIT, of course, likes to buy mortgage servicing rights.