The focus on purchase mortgages became urgent as interest rates started to increase in May, settling for the moment about 100 basis points higher than they were in April, reducing demand for refinances.

On Thursday morning, Fairholme chief Bruce Berkowitz said, "We’re talking to everyone about this plan,” then added: “We’d love to talk to Treasury.”

The STACR deal was structured so that Freddie Mac will take the first 30 basis points of losses on the transaction, followed by private investors, which bought debt notes on the following 300 basis points of potential losses.

Are mortgage bankers so diabolical that they attempt to find a way around new regulations? Industry consultant Joe Garrett of Garrett, McAuley & Co. thinks so.

One trade group official told Inside Mortgage Finance that despite efforts by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to create g-fee parity for lenders of different sizes, there has been little in the way of progress.

Pete Carroll's mortgage credentials include a stint at Overture Technologies, a mortgage technology firm based in the Washington, DC, area.

The CFPB expects the vast majority of institutions to be in substantial compliance with its new mortgage rules by the January deadlines.

Paul Rozo, who runs PRMG, told us that he is not a big fan of call centers and that every LO in his organization is a “hunter,” a sales person “who relies on referral business and/or handling their own marketing."

The frothy prices being offered for MSRs are beginning to cool somewhat. “There’s definitely a tighter range on bids lately,” said Matt Maurer, managing director of MountainView Servicing Group.

While the report doesn’t mention FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco by name, it's a clear repudiation of his stewardship of the agency.