Commenting on Fairholme's court victory, one GSE observer quipped: “Game on.”

The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance this week suggested a change to proposed Reg AB2 disclosure requirements in an effort to protect the privacy of borrowers whose loans are included in MBS and ABS.

In a heavily redacted draft memo released to the public, the Inspector General of FHFA found that while the agency had reviewed and examined the GSEs’ executive compensation, it did not keep close tabs on "non-executive senior professional compensation practices."

Of course, Ocwen is hardly alone when it comes to having a large overseas mortgage workforce. Wells Fargo and Nationstar, we’re told, also have decent sized back office operations in India…

Fear and loathing when it comes to mortgage servicing sales? Maybe now, but not in 2013.

So, mortgage firms are reducing “overlays” and expanding credit to borrowers in need. Right? Not necessarily.

The Consumer Financial Freedom and Washington Accountability Act, sponsored by House Financial Services Committee member Rep. Sean Duffy, R-WI, would, among other things, replace the single CFPB director with a five-member commission appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

A spokesman for Ocwen said the company did not like the way the IMFnews story was being “interpreted.” After the story was published early Friday afternoon, Ocwen’s share price began to rise and continued to increase Monday.

With the Federal Reserve acquiring a significant portion of new agency MBS issuance, the aggregate MBS holdings of banks and thrifts continued to decline in late 2013, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside MBS & ABS. Commercial banks and savings institutions held a total of $1.507 trillion of residential MBS in portfolio as of the end of last year, newly-released call-report data reveal. That was down 0.4 percent from the end of the third quarter and marked the industry’s fifth consecutive quarterly decline. Bank and thrift MBS holdings fell...[Includes two data charts]

Fed: G-Fee Hikes Would Have Minimal Impact on Agency Originations. Increases to guaranty fees under consideration by the Federal Housing Finance Agency would directly reduce the dollar volume of new agency originations by less than 1.0 percent, according to new research published by the Federal Reserve. In December, then-FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco announced a plan to increase the base g-fee for all new Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages by 10 basis points, update the up-front g-fee grid and eliminate the upfront 25 basis point adverse market fee that has been assessed on all mortgages purchased by Fannie and Freddie since 2008.