Fairholme: “Only the disingenuous would assert that recapitalization of these companies would take decades and come at taxpayers’ expense…”

A fun fact for nonbanks: Depository institutions among the top 50 servicers reduced their holdings by 1.2 percent during the same period.

The largest Fannie/Freddie servicers are still Wells Fargo, JPMorgan and Bank of America, but all three continue to shrink their exposure to GSE product...

The trade group’s blueprint also throws cold water on any piecemeal “recap and release” plan for Fannie and Freddie.

"The legal challenges [to firing Cordray] must be very legitimate or they would have tossed him by now," said one industry official...

It’s Monday and Richard Cordray is still the director of the CFPB, despite a whirlwind of sometimes conflicting news reports and rumors. Into last week, one continuing narrative (or trial balloon, perhaps) was that President Trump was on the verge of sacking Cordray “any day now.” But in the last few days, the latest line is that the Trump administration won’t fire Cordray until the Senate confirms Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-AL, to be the next attorney general of the United States. The reason: the legal battle that would (presumably) ensue if he is fired will require a permanent AG to be in place and not just an acting top cop. Then again, the Trump administration seems to like to shoot ...

OCC Revises CRA Asset Thresholds for Small and Intermediate Small Banks and Savings Associations. Earlier this month, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency revised the asset-size threshold amounts used to define “small bank,” “small savings association,” “intermediate small bank,” and “intermediate small savings association” under the Community Reinvestment Act. ... OCC Adjusts Civil Money Penalties for Inflation. Late last week, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced it was adjusting the maximum amount of each civil money penalty within its jurisdiction. ...

Bulk transfers of Freddie Mac MSRs also increased dramatically in 4Q16, more than doubling to $17.52 billion…

Keefe Bruyette & Woods questioned what would happen if the GSEs were dismantled in its recent financial podcast. Bose George, analyst with KBW, said, given the increase in guaranty fees, it’s clear that at least for higher quality loans, the private sector is ready to price just as competitively. “But we see two risks if the GSEs go away,” he said. George noted that the five trillion dollars worth of GSE MBS guarantees, which currently have no capital behind them, will need capital if that moves over to the banking system. And he said it’s safe to assume that will translate into higher mortgage rates.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac single-family mortgage servicing grew at a relatively stable pace during the fourth quarter of 2016, but the nonbank share was up significantly. A new Inside The GSEs analysis and ranking shows that the two guaranteed $4.496 trillion of single-family mortgage-backed securities outstanding at the end of December. That was up 1.0 percent from the third quarter and 0.8 percent higher than at the end of 2015. But nonbanks held the mortgage-servicing rights on some $1.476 trillion of GSE single-family MBS, up 4.7 percent from the end of the third quarter. Their GSE servicing grew a whopping 18.5 percent during 2016, while banks and other depositories managed a small 0.6 percent increase.