Wells Fargo remained the top mortgage servicer in the industry at the end of 2012, but the company posted a rare decline in its portfolio during the fourth quarter and is reportedly considering selling some of its massive $1.873 trillion portfolio. A new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis of the servicing market underscores the gains made in market share by a handful of nonbanks and some regional banks, while some of the top servicers continue to pare their businesses. The servicing industry faces a significant challenge in that increased regulatory requirements are raising operational costs at a time when the overall market continues to decline. On the upside, much of the damage from the housing recession has already occurred...[Includes one data chart]

Republican critics of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are maneuvering to take advantage of a sudden opportunity to push for changes to the leadership structure and the finances of the bureau, after a surprise legal ruling breathed new life into their long-running struggle to clip the new agencyfs wings. Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in Noel Canning v. National Labor Relations Board that three recess appointments President Obama made to the NLRB were unconstitutional because the Senate was technically not in recess at the time they were made. Industry lawyers believe...

HARP 3.0 Status Update: Democrats in both the Senate and the White House are warming up efforts to expand government-backed refinance programs in order to assist underwater homeowners whose mortgages are packaged into non-agency securities. Repurposed refi proposals from last year are poised to be re-introduced in the 113th Congress with the active and vocal support of the Treasury Department, which may enact its own initiative if lawmakers can’t or won’t pass a measure. “We must expand...

The Federal Housing Administration is cracking down on down payment assistance programs, tracking the source of gift money.

Lawmakers worry about FHA's financial condition during Wednesday hearing.

Standard & Poor's, which had a huge ratings market share tied to subprime MBS, was sued by the government for negligence.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have developed a prototype of its standard securitization platform.

FHA is looking at $133 billion of troubled mortgages.

The government-sponsored enterprises are working several different risk-transfer pilots and will soon issue the securities, according to officials at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Non-agency MBS investors appear eager for the securities, though a number of regulatory concerns remain, including complications with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Patrick Lawler, chief economist at the FHFA, said a risk-sharing transaction will hopefully be issued in the “not too distant future.” Speaking at the American Securitization Forum’s ASF 2013 conference this week in Las Vegas, Lawler and other officials with the FHFA and GSEs said risk-sharing transactions are a high priority this year. “The commitment is...

Relatively new players to the world of Fannie Mae approvals are starting to gripe a little more about the “volume curbs” that the GSE is placing on its “newbie” customers. One mortgage banker, who spoke under the condition his name not be used, told Inside Mortgage Finance ...