Fairholme owns $3.5 billion (face value) of GSE junior preferred stock. After company chief Bruce Berkowitz sent his tender offer to FHFA and then went on CNBC to discuss the plan, you can bet that the price of GSE preferred probably increased a bit.

The last time private MIs did more business than either the FHA or the VA was back in the first quarter of 2008. At that point, however, private MIs accounted for well over half of primary MI new business.

On Thursday morning, Fairholme chief Bruce Berkowitz said, "We’re talking to everyone about this plan,” then added: “We’d love to talk to Treasury.”

The STACR deal was structured so that Freddie Mac will take the first 30 basis points of losses on the transaction, followed by private investors, which bought debt notes on the following 300 basis points of potential losses.

The CFPB expects the vast majority of institutions to be in substantial compliance with its new mortgage rules by the January deadlines.

Pete Carroll's mortgage credentials include a stint at Overture Technologies, a mortgage technology firm based in the Washington, DC, area.

Cash-out refis are at all-time lows compared to the peak in 2006 when $84 billion in equity was withdrawn by consumers.

One trade group official told Inside Mortgage Finance that despite efforts by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to create g-fee parity for lenders of different sizes, there has been little in the way of progress.

Are mortgage bankers so diabolical that they attempt to find a way around new regulations? Industry consultant Joe Garrett of Garrett, McAuley & Co. thinks so.

The changes via Desktop Underwriter include tougher debt calculations for adjustable-rate loans and a complete removal of interest-only loan options.