The two best things about the mortgage origination market in the fourth quarter were that it meant 2014 wasn’t as bad as once feared, and that refinance demand had picked up. But a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking reveals two other positive trends: the jumbo and home-equity markets continued to gain strength in the final three months of 2014. Lenders originated an estimated $67 billion of jumbo mortgages during the fourth quarter, up 3.1 percent from the previous period. Home-equity production bounced 5.0 percent higher, to an estimated $21 billion. Neither gain was...[Includes two data charts]

What did the FHA earn last year? The new HUD secretary didn't know.

Citadel Servicing Corp., which has made a name for itself as a new-style subprime lender, has rolled out an Alt A mortgage called “Maggi.”

According to the MBA, a Big Four accounting firm issued controversial guidance which would have been burdensome for small MBS issuers.

NewDay's chairman emeritus is former Ginnie Mae president Joe Murin.

"My understanding is that FHA is planning on releasing supplemental performance metrics to ‘Neighborhood Watch’ to reduce reliance and focus on just a lender’s compare ratio," said Tim Rood.

Marina Walsh, vice president of industry analysis for MBA, said, “We don’t have enough information to do a thorough analysis of the proposal.”

Treasury counselor Michael Stegman noted that policymakers on both sides of the aisle are dissatisfied with the current status quo regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

A proposal from FHA could see the light of day within six weeks, some have speculated.

OIG Expects to Finish Nine Audits, Evaluations of the CFPB This Quarter. The CFPB’s Office of Inspector General has a batch of ongoing projects related to the bureau that it expects to complete sometime during the first quarter, according to the OIG’s latest work plan, released early this week.Among the projects are audits of the CFPB’s contract management process, its diversity and inclusion processes, and it headquarters renovation project. Other projects with a first quarter 2015 completion timeframe are audits of the CFPB’s public consumer complaint database, the bureau’s space-planning activities, and the CFPB’s Tableau system, an application used to develop, publish, and view business intelligence data. Also up for completion this quarter is an evaluation of the CFPB’s ...