Some 44 percent of mods on portfolio loans by eight large banks and thrifts include principal reduction in the third quarter of 2013.

Freedom Mortgage, which has aggressive hiring plans this year, has tapped two top production executives from PHH.

The GSEs’ common industry dataset that supports the CFPB’s new disclosure form is called the Uniform Closing Dataset, and is one component of the Uniform Mortgage Data Program, an ongoing effort being directed by the FHFA.

As an industry, banks assigned a fair-market value of $48.4 billion to their mortgage servicing rights, according to figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Trends.

Issuance of jumbo MBS was strong in 2013 until interest rates started to rise in May due to concerns that the Federal Reserve was set to taper its stimulus efforts.

A handful of firms say they are still aggressively recruiting residential loan officers who have a solid background in purchase-money lending – that is, sales professionals with deep ties to Realtors and home builders.

Also note that the ATR rule provides additional flexibility to small lenders in that the safe harbor has been expanded to 3.5 percent over the average prime offer rate.

Some 29.3 percent of home purchases completed in November relied solely on cash. That was the third monthly increase in the share of cash transactions.

A nearly decade-long class-action fraud lawsuit on behalf of Fannie Mae investors and the GSE’s accountant KPMG LLP has been put to rest following the approval of a federal court judge earlier this month. In papers filed with the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, Judge Richard Leon said he found the $153 million settlement and plan for distributing it among the more than one million class members was “fair, reasonable and adequate.” Two Ohio pension funds – the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System and the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio – filed suit in 2004 related to a $6.3 billion overstatement of earnings against Fannie and three former GSE executives, including then-CEO Franklin Raines.

PNC Financial Services will pay Freddie Mac $89 million to put to bed all buyback liabilities on home loans sold to the GSE in the years leading up to the mortgage-market meltdown, the lender announced earlier this month. The settlement resolves certain PNC repurchase obligations for both existing and future claims for approximately 900,000 loans that were sold to Freddie between 2000 and 2008. The $89 million payout, less credits of $8 million, will also be used to compensate Freddie for any losses that the GSE incurred in the past or any other losses that may result in the future, said PNC.