While activity plummeted in the second half of the year, jumbo MBS production in 2013 was nearly four times the level from the previous year.

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.

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

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.

During the next 12 months, investors will have to navigate through numerous uncertainties, including all forms of policy risk: monetary, fiscal, economic and the fate of the GSEs.

While banks have put an emphasis on originating jumbo mortgages for portfolio, the uptick in total mortgages outstanding was largely driven by originations of agency mortgages.

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

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.

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."