bivey@imfpubs.com Walter Investment Management is the latest servicer to transition to a “capital lite” business model, announcing the formation of a REIT to hold mortgage servicing rights. Walter said the new Walter Capital Opportunity unit will acquire certain MSRs while Walter Investment Management subservices the loans. Rival special servicers Nationstar Mortgage and Ocwen Financial have already created or partnered with similar affiliated MSR investors and Two Harbors Investment, a REIT, announced a like-minded agreement with PHH this…

Despite this year’s implementation of a new Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac representations and warranties framework that offers some repurchase relief three years after a loan is sold, officials from the two government-sponsored enterprises agree that the best way to beat a buyback request is to focus on quality control. Participants during an Inside Mortgage Finance webinar this week said the new reps and warranties policy has brought greatly increased scrutiny of new mortgages guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie. “Quality in the loan-manufacturing process is...

SunTrust Mortgage – like many large banks before it – is pulling the ripcord on the wholesale-broker channel, though it will remain as a correspondent buyer of closed mortgages. The company ranked 12th in wholesale-broker lending during the first half of 2013, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. A company spokesman confirmed the bank’s exit from the sector, but declined to provide any explanation. “Clients with applications currently pending in this channel are not affected by this announcement,” he said. “We will continue to work to close their loans.” Brokers were...

Nationstar and PennyMac led the ongoing charge of non-banks into the mortgage servicing business during the third quarter of 2013, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking. The two companies reported increases in their servicing portfolios of 17.9 percent and 19.1 percent, respectively, from the end of the second quarter. The other stand-out big gain was a 14.2 percent increase in servicing reported by EverBank. Non-bank servicers accounted...[Includes one data chart]

According to Bill Dallas, his young firm hopes to table fund as much as $20 million in November, its first full month of operation

Bank of America led all residential firms in cumulative mortgage complaints: 23,004 at the end of September. Wells Fargo was a distant second with 12,261.

If the case settles, it would be the second time in two years that a case involving disparate impact claims under the Fair Housing Act has settled before the Supreme Court had an opportunity to hear arguments.

FBR Capital Markets believes that smaller shops are not being counted in new estimates on loan production.

Big banks were the five largest jumbo originators last year, with Bank of America ranking second followed by JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and U.S. Bank.

Financial industry trade groups want all Title II forward mortgage loans that meet FHA requirements to be treated as “safe harbor” qualified mortgage loans instead of being lumped in either of two QM buckets as proposed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Commenting on HUD’s proposed definition of a “qualified mortgage,” the industry groups – Mortgage Bankers Association, Consumer Bankers Association, Consumer Mortgage Coalition, American Bankers Association, and the Independent Community Bankers of America – urged HUD to ...