The CFPB also said it is exempting servicers from being required to provide periodic account statements and certain early intervention contacts with borrowers who are in bankruptcy.

How do you spell servicing relief? It all depends on who you ask. Meanwhile, First Guaranty Mortgage is entering the warehouse arena.

The low profile of the FHLBs, which has served the system so well in the past, has become a “sizable policy risk” as the relatively few people who will be directing housing finance reform know what the system does.

“The exodus of a majority of the pre-crisis nonbank entities within the mortgage arena provides an opportunity for banks to re-establish their position within the mortgage market,” according to regulators in Connecticut.

Clayton noted 907 compliance findings from its review. However, Fitch said the findings were deemed to be out of scope and waived by Fannie due to the limited scope of its post-close review for compliance.

Rumors abound about mortgage firms either closing or laying off staff. Meanwhile, Auction.com, known for selling troubled real estate for banks and other investors, is offering up a $600 million pool of performing multifamily mortgages.

KBRA pointed out that one jumbo MBS issuer said it will accept mortgages where lenders have implemented procedures to either close the loans with an exception or review IRS transcripts post-closing.

FHA and VA are urging mortgagees and lenders to extend all possible assistance to borrowers who have been furloughed, laid off or suffered a decline in income because of the government shutdown.

Mortgage banking officials tracking the issue believe that if the agency is going to lower Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loan limits for 2014 it will need to codify those changes by mid- to late October to give lenders time to update their technology systems.

It’s not every day that a stock comes public at $20 a share, falls 7 percent on its first day of trading and then continues to drift downward. Then again, if that stock is a mortgage investing real estate investment trust like Cherry Hill Mortgage Investment Corp., it’s no big surprise. Thanks to rising interest rates – which actually have been in decline during the government shutdown and uncertainty over the U.S. debt ceiling – mortgage REITs have been battered in the market. Cherry Hill, a spin-off of Freedom Mortgage of Mt. Laurel, NJ, went...