The high-stakes game of chicken Congressional Democrats and Republicans have been playing for the better part of the last two years over President Obama’s nomination of Richard Cordray to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau came to an end this week as GOP members of the Senate blinked first. On Tuesday, the Republicans agreed to allow an up-or-down vote on Cordray to avert a showdown over longstanding filibuster rules in the Senate. Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, has been threatening to upend the Senate’s traditional filibuster mechanism and change the rule under which presidential nominees must receive 60 votes in order to be approved. Cordray’s nomination to a full five-year term was approved...

Sens. Bob Corker, R-TN, and Mark Warner, D-VA, say their mortgage reform measure strikes the right chord between Democrat and Republican concerns.

Nationstar Mortgage is issuing $250 million of debt, hinting that it may buy more MSRs from Bank of America.

Banks have a strong track record on obtaining Ginnie Mae approvals, nonbanks not so much.

In 2012 single-family g-fees allowed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to collect $12.5 billion from its seller/servicers.

Among other things, the bill would allow FHA to make changes to the reverse mortgage program by mortgagee letter rather than legislation.

Accenture is making major inroads in the residential finance space with its purchase of Mortgage Cadence. Meanwhile, Fannie says market could move toward ARMs.

The MBA believes that the Treasury Department – despite being the GSEs’ single biggest shareholder – has been absent on Fannie/Freddie reform since early 2011.

The numbers suggest that after seven quarters of complaints being received by the CFPB, mortgage lenders are getting a better handle on complaint resolution.

Banking Industry Reps Ask CFPB to Delay Implementing Mortgage Rules. The CFPB should delay the January 2014 effective dates of several pending mortgage rules, a number of banking industry representatives said in a letter to CFPB Director Richard Cordray late last week. “These rules will dramatically refocus the entire lending process,” wrote the American Bankers Association and their state association affiliates. “Every participant in that process, from lenders to borrowers, service providers, appraisers, escrow agents, title...