If 2015 is anything like 2014, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be getting over half of their single-family business from nonbanks by the end of the year. A new Inside The GSEs analysis of loan-level mortgage-backed securities data reveals that nonbanks accounted for 44.8 percent of Fannie/Freddie MBS issued in the fourth quarter of 2014. That was up from a nonbank share of 37.2 percent during the fourth quarter of 2013 and just 28.1 percent back in the first quarter of that year. As a group, nonbank sellers increased their total GSE sales by 2.9 percent from the third quarter to the fourth quarter, while the overall market declined by 2.1 percent. The biggest ... [with two exclusive charts] ...

Securitization of nonperforming and re-performing mortgages accounted for just over half of total non-agency MBS production in 2014.

The biggest decline in MI business during the fourth quarter came in loans refinanced through the Home Affordable Refinance Program.

The layoffs “were in various departments and locations, but the majority of them were in corporate (administrative) departments at our headquarters,” spokesman for the company told IMFnews.

The FHFA, so far, has declined to provide a budget figure to the general public.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitized $46.91 billion of home loans with private mortgage insurance during the fourth quarter of 2014, down 1.9 percent from the previous quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. The drop in private MI volume nearly mirrored the 2.1 percent decline in overall mortgage-backed securities production by the two government-sponsored enterprises over the same period. For all of 2014, the volume of private MI loans included in Fannie/Freddie MBS was down 22.5 percent, while total GSE securitization tumbled 45.4 percent from 2013. While MI-insured purchase mortgages declined by 7.0 percent from the third quarter, securitization of refinance loans with private MI jumped...[Includes two data charts]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency overstepped its authority when it proposed excluding captive insurers from obtaining membership in the Federal Home Loan Bank System, according to captive insurance companies. Real estate investment trusts – including Redwood Trust and Two Harbors Investment – have used captive insurance companies to gain access to FHLBank financing. “The proposed membership regulations would needlessly exclude an entire category of statutorily permitted members that can further the FHLBank System’s mission as the mortgage finance market continually evolves,” Redwood Trust said in a comment letter to the FHFA. The FHFA issued...

Stan Kurland, PennyMac’s chairman and CEO, said the FHLB application for PMT Insurance has been on hold since it was submitted.

One servicing advisor raised an interesting scenario Tuesday: Maybe Bill Erbey will swoop in and buy all of Ocwen’s shares and take the whole thing private.

Meanwhile, new revelations about regulatory problems in California are likely to make Ocwen’s disposal of servicing rights problematic.