Union Bank hopes to make a big splash as a retail funder of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans.

Sprague, a veteran of SunTrust, Bank of America, and Matrix Capital, has joined Phoenix Capital.

Banks are still making nice profits off their residential lending and servicing businesses, but 4Q12 may turn out to be a peak in the cycle.

Freddie Mac is phasing out a software package that helps with the servicing of delinquent loans, a move that could help private sector technology vendors.

Loan officer compensation to individual originator employees is included in the calculation of the QM’s 3 percent limit on points and fees but the industry believes this is double counting.

Cole Taylor Mortgage, which has grown its servicing portfolio ten-fold in the past year, is now an active Ginnie Mae issuer.

The "flow" market for mortgage servicing continues to improve. IMA is in the market with a new package and others are on the way.

Mortgage profits are improving in the second quarter, but how long can it last? Meanwhile, Freddie talks about the CSP.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners recently proposed changes to modeling values of insurance company holdings of non-agency MBS and commercial MBS. The proposal could increase loss forecasts and prompt some sales of the securities, according to analysts. The NAIC proposed using the Treasury strip curve as the discount rate in determining the net-present value of expected loss for modeled securities, as opposed to using each security’s coupon rate to determine expected losses. The standard-setting group governed by state insurance regulators noted that the Treasury strip curve is a risk-free curve. “Using a consistent risk-free rate for all modeled securities in calculating the expected loss reflects...

Securitization of income-property mortgages jumped 23.0 percent from already strong levels during the first three months of 2013, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS market analysis. A total of $47.61 billion of commercial MBS were issued during the first quarter, including a variety of non-agency deals as well as multifamily MBS issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. That was the strongest level since structured finance markets tanked in 2008. The previous post-crash high was...[Includes one data chart]