Nationstar Mortgage joined Ocwen Financial last week under the glare of the New York Department of Financial Services’ spotlight. Ben Lawsky, superintendent of the NYDFS, said the state regulator has received hundreds of complaints about Nationstar’s practices, including problems with loan modifications, improper fees and lost paperwork. “Our department has significant concerns that the explosive growth at Nationstar and other nonbank servicers may create capacity issues ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sold some nonprime mortgage-backed securities during 2013 even though the government-sponsored enterprises have seen strong returns on these holdings in recent quarters. The GSEs held a total of $84.61 billion in nonprime MBS as of the end of 2013, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The holdings declined by 18.2 percent compared with the end of 2012 due to a combination of ... [Includes one data chart]

The Chinese Year of the Horse welcomed the FHA with a hard kick in the head as total originations fell 20 percent in January from December 2013. Even as rising interest rates slowed refinancing activity last year, the expected increase in purchase-mortgage lending barely materialized and, in fact, appears to be dropping off. Lenders reported $8.7 billion in new originations in January, down from $10.9 billion in December and $23.7 billion from a year ago. Most were fixed-rate mortgages and 77.1 percent were purchase transactions. Three of the top five FHA lenders – Quicken Loans, JPMorgan Chase and LoanDepot – reported purchase origination totals below 40 percent. Top-ranked Wells Fargo and Bank of America each reported 64.0 percent of total FHA originations as purchase transactions. Wells Fargo closed the month with $519.0 million despite a ... [2 charts]

Last week, Lawsky noted that Nationstar’s portfolio more than doubled between the end of 2012 and the end of 2013. He asked the nonbank servicer to provide the number of full timers in each unit as well as the number of loans per employee.

Observers note that Barclays Bank is in the process of settling on a recent large NPL auction as well.

Springleaf is no longer making new real estate-backed loans, but it continues to shed legacy mortgages.

Well, at least GSE junior preferred shares are holding their own. Also, Five Oaks Investment is approving correspondents for its new jumbo flow-program...

Citadel is the most active non-agency, non-prime lender in the U.S. In an interview with IMFnews, company founder and CEO Dan Perl said, “We’ll do $11 million to $12 million, at least" for the month of March.

Credit Suisse late last week issued its second jumbo MBS of the year, both of which have largely consisted of mortgages from New Penn Financial. Redwood Trust is also planning to issue its first jumbo MBS of the year in the coming weeks, though officials at the real estate investment trust are pessimistic about the short-term outlook for jumbo MBS issuance. Credit Suisse’s latest jumbo MBS was a $297.4 million deal with ratings from DBRS and Standard & Poor’s. The AAA tranche had credit enhancement of 8.85 percent and no presale reports on the deal were published. Officials at Redwood have cited...

A few weeks back, Rep. Mark Takano, D-CA, called for Congressional hearings on the single-family rental MBS market, singling out investments made by the Blackstone Group.