Western Asset Management has a "ton of fire power" when it comes to buying non-agency mortgages, said one source.

Zach Oppenheimer, a senior vice president at Fannie Mae, said it’s a positive development that more private capital is coming into the mortgage servicing space.

The $75 million in financing includes $50 million from a Wall Street firm and a $25 million line from a California commercial bank.

The researchers confirmed that homebuilder originations from 2001 through the end of 2008 tended to go to lower credit-quality borrowers compared with originations from unaffiliated lenders.

Sources contend that at least two nonbanks have undertaken due diligence of PHH Mortgage, but so far a deal has been elusive.

The first quarter of 2014 marked the lowest point in mortgage banking income for depositories since the second quarter of 2011.

One warehouse executive, speaking under the condition his name not be used, said “Luckily for us, compared to January, things are great.”

In the first quarter, among the top ten, the biggest correspondent production gainers were Nationstar Mortgage and Stonegate Mortgage, both nonbanks.

There seems to be a growing trend of foreign banks rethinking their position in the U.S. mortgage market.

Commercial banks and savings institutions generated $3.37 billion in mortgage banking income during the first quarter of 2014, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call reports. First-quarter bank and thrift mortgage banking profits were down 36.2 percent from the fourth quarter of last year and 56.2 percent off the robust $7.70 billion the industry earned in the first three months of 2013. The first quarter of 2014 marked the lowest ... [Includes one data chart]