Fairholme owns $3.5 billion (face value) of GSE junior preferred stock. After company chief Bruce Berkowitz sent his tender offer to FHFA and then went on CNBC to discuss the plan, you can bet that the price of GSE preferred probably increased a bit.

The focus on purchase mortgages became urgent as interest rates started to increase in May, settling for the moment about 100 basis points higher than they were in April, reducing demand for refinances.

On Thursday morning, Fairholme chief Bruce Berkowitz said, "We’re talking to everyone about this plan,” then added: “We’d love to talk to Treasury.”

Are mortgage bankers so diabolical that they attempt to find a way around new regulations? Industry consultant Joe Garrett of Garrett, McAuley & Co. thinks so.

One trade group official told Inside Mortgage Finance that despite efforts by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to create g-fee parity for lenders of different sizes, there has been little in the way of progress.

Pete Carroll's mortgage credentials include a stint at Overture Technologies, a mortgage technology firm based in the Washington, DC, area.

The CFPB expects the vast majority of institutions to be in substantial compliance with its new mortgage rules by the January deadlines.

Paul Rozo, who runs PRMG, told us that he is not a big fan of call centers and that every LO in his organization is a “hunter,” a sales person “who relies on referral business and/or handling their own marketing."

While the report doesn’t mention FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco by name, it's a clear repudiation of his stewardship of the agency.

Consumer advocate Mike Calhoun questioned if lenders will offer non-QMs at all, due to the liability posed by such originations and their designation as “less safe” mortgages.