Citadel Servicing has raised $200 million in capital to originate residential subprime mortgages. Does this mean subprime lending is "back"? Answer: yes and no.

This week’s effort by a quartet of former Washington heavyweights to “jump start” the debate over the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the form of a new, but familiar, mortgage reform proposal put GSE overhaul back in the headlines. Industry observers say that’s a plus, but it remains to be seen whether it will ultimately affect policy change. The Bipartisan Policy Center, comprised of former Republican and Democrat lawmakers and cabinet officials, issued a plan calling for the phasing out of the GSEs in favor of a new federal entity that explicitly acts as a backstop of last resort after the private sector.

Freddie Mac ended 2012 with its single best quarterly showing since the company was placed into government conservatorship by the Federal Housing Finance Agency at the height of mortgage market implosion 4½ years ago. The GSE late this week posted fourth quarter net income of $4.5 billion. Compared to the third quarter’s earnings of $2.9 billion, profits grew by 55 percent, the company noted in its Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

It shouldn’t be a surprise if mortgage lenders are suffering from loan originator compensation regulation fatigue. “The industry has been in a constant state of implementation regarding LO comp and LO qualification since 2009,” said Amy Thoreson Long, senior counsel in the consumer lending division of Wells Fargo’s law department, during a webinar hosted yesterday by Inside Mortgage Finance, an affiliated newsletter. The bad news is, things will get much worse in that regard before they get better, thanks to ...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency hasn't totally given up on the issue of "fee for service."

Wells Fargo last year wound up keeping almost $20 billion of new residential production its books instead of selling the loans to Fannie Mare and Freddie Mac.

FHA staff could be furloughed if the federal sequester happens Thursday night.

A new mortgage reform proposal drafted by a blue-ribbon panel gives a fairly prominent role to private credit enhancement as a key feature in a new mortgage securitization system. While the plan released this week by the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Housing Commission – like all others that came before it – calls for a smaller government role in the mortgage sector, it remains to be seen whether it will get the reform process off the ground in a stalled political environment. The commission, comprised of former lawmakers and cabinet officials, both Republican and Democrat, calls for phasing out the government-sponsored enterprises in favor of a new federal entity that explicitly acts as a backstop of last resort after the private sector. It would replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over a five- to 10-year period with a new “Public Guarantor,” a wholly government entity that would provide an explicit, but limited guaranty on mortgage-backed securities. “The government would cover...

Wells Fargo has not given up on mortgage lending JVs after all and has hired someone to manage them.