The five largest REIT MBS investors all reported double-digit drops during the final three months of 2013, while the mid-range companies generally had smaller declines and three smaller firms actually grew their portfolios.

According to industry sources, UGI wanted the new trade association to operate on the principle of unanimous consent both for budgetary and policy matters, which was opposed by other MIs.

"The facts regarding the department's work on mortgage fraud tell a much different story than this report," said a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice.

For those of you tracking the lawsuits filed by GSE preferred investors against the federal government, one attorney told us this week that: “These cases won’t be resolved for years." Meanwhile, it appears that the CSP still has no CEO.

A spokeswoman for the FHFA declined to provide any guidance on when a CEO or chairman might be named for the CSP. She noted: “The common securitization platform project is still in development,” adding that “We have neither final plans nor specific budgets at this time.”

Last week, Lawsky noted that Nationstar’s portfolio more than doubled between the end of 2012 and the end of 2013. He asked the nonbank servicer to provide the number of full timers in each unit as well as the number of loans per employee.

It may be temporary, but residential mortgage debt outstanding fell in the fourth quarter. For buyers of servicers that means less product is available (in theory).

Will investors think twice about buying mortgage servicing rights because of the sabre rattling from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?

The more detailed 'needs-to-improve' list includes Bank of America, CitiMortgage, Nationstar Mortgage, Ocwen Loan Servicing, Select Portfolio Servicing and Wells Fargo.

The CSP, headquartered in Bethesda, MD, has an annual budget of between $100 million and $300 million, according to Inside MBS & ABS.