Wells Fargo and HSBC are stepping up sales of nonperforming mortgages, while keeping a lid on the details.

MBS issuers, under a new proposal, will have greater leeway in buying delinquent mortgages out of Ginnie Mae pools.

New York State may be among the worst in the nation when it comes to approving loan officer applications.

Progressives and other “Dump DeMarco” advocates are looking to a “Plan B” to replace the current acting head should Rep. Mel Watt’s nomination be significantly prolonged or even stall.

Ocwen had $155 billion of subprime servicing contracts at the end of the first quarter, more than double its next closest competitor.

The bulk servicing market continues to heat up. MountainView is out with two new deals.

The Mortgage Bankers Association wants lower guaranty fees from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but is willing to barter for them.

While non-agency MBS participants largely oppose a credit rating assignment system proposed by Sen. Al Franken, D-MN, some of the main players in the market endorse a model based on ratings rotation. At a roundtable hosted by the Securities and Exchange Commission this week, Martin Hughes, CEO of Redwood Trust, said issuer-paid rating conflicts could be reduced by requiring non-agency MBS issuers to alternate rating services so that one firm didn’t rate more than two consecutive deals from the issuer. He noted that Redwood has established a self-imposed rotation between Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s on its non-agency MBS issuance. “The requirement to frequently alternate among the nationally recognized...

Freddie Mac is offering $1.0 billion of its non-agency MBS holdings for sale, according to a spokesman for the government-sponsored enterprise, part of efforts to meet requirements set by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Fannie Mae also plans asset sales of some sort, but wouldn’t commit to selling its non-agency MBS holdings. Freddie held $70.28 billion in non-agency MBS at the end of the first quarter of 2013 and Fannie held $31.22 billion. The GSEs purchased the non-agency MBS before 2009 and have allowed the holdings to run off ever since. The FHFA recently required...

Rating services are putting considerable energy into assessing the companies that are originating loans for the new breed of jumbo non-agency MBS, in addition to thorough due diligence reviews of the collateral itself, industry experts say. The rating services don’t even begin the rating process until the major loan originators in a transaction clear the “gating” process, said Kathryn Kelbaugh, a senior analyst at Moody’s Investors Service, during a panel session at last week’s secondary market conference sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association. “We want to know what originators are doing, have third-party reviews and look at reps and warranties. You have to pass those gates before we can do a rating.” Margaret Sweeney, a director at Fitch Ratings, said...