The starting salary for the CEO is said to be about $450,000 plus benefits, which is roughly double what the new director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Mel Watt, earns.

A veteran player in the jumbo ARM market said one investment bank in particular has “had lots of layoffs.”

American Advisors Group, whose spokesman is former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-TN, led with $1.05 billion in reverse mortgage originations and a 9 percent market share.

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader has spent years demanding satisfaction for GSE shareholders from the Obama administration, regulators and members of Congress.

With the recent data breach at the Target national retail chain and the disclosures about the National Security Administration by whistleblower Edward Snowden still fresh in mind, House Republicans are pressing the CFPB over the integrity and security of its various database initiatives. Rep. Ed Royce, R-CA, took issue in particular with the national mortgage database project the CFPB is engaged in, along with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the regulator of housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “I think you...

Public Comments on the Mortgage Closing Process are Due Feb. 7. Early in January, the CFPB solicited consumer comments on the mortgage closing process, specifically asking consumers to identify the key “pain points” associated with mortgage closing and how they might by addressed by market innovations and technology. The bureau specifically said it wanted comments on how to increase the use of technology and promote inventions that encourage a more streamlined mortgage closing process while also improving consumer knowledge. The CFPB...

Total FHA delinquencies rose slightly while the percentage of seriously delinquent loans remained flat in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis of FHA servicing data. Data showed delinquencies of 90 days or more remained unchanged at 8.1 percent from the previous quarter even as total FHA delinquencies increased a bit to 15.2 percent from 15.1 quarter over quarter. The share of loans that are 30-60 days behind on their payment also increased to 7.1 percent from 6.9 percent over the same period. As of Dec. 31, FHA servicers had a combined ... [1 chart]

Although the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac common securitization platform is now legally incorporated, has a signed lease for office space in suburban Maryland and is growing staff, it still doesn’t have a chief executive and chairman – two essentials to be taken seriously by the market. “It’s pretty much turned into the mess I suspected it would a year ago,” said one former candidate for the CEO job, who spoke under the condition his name not be used. Discussing the chairman position, he added...

DOJ’s initial penalty calculation was based on the gross loss to Fannie and Freddie from the default of the loans, but now the government says the court should use gross gain, instead of net gain to set the maximum allowable penalty.

A Manhattan federal bankruptcy court this week approved Lehman Brother’s proposed $2 billion-plus settlement that would end an $18.9 billion claim filed against the defunct investment bank by Fannie Mae over soured mortgage securities. Judge James Peck of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, signed off on the settlement agreement between Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the government-sponsored enterprise, as well as Lehman’s wholly owned subsidiaries Aurora Commercial Group and Aurora Loan Services. ALS was a large Alt A lender/servicer. The deal grants...