JPMorgan Chase is joining the ranks of banks laying off loan review staff now that they’ve settled their foreclosure cases with the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has a mortgage-related field hearing scheduled for Thursday in Atlanta, is expected to issue its final servicing rule this week.

Residential Capital Corp., the bankrupt mortgage division of Ally Financial, has asked for court permission to sell an estimated $130 million of FHA-insured residential loans.

National MI, the Emeryville, CA-based mortgage insurer started by former executives at The PMI Group, has yet to write its first policy, but may soon.

Arch Bay Capital, once one of the most active buyers of nonperforming residential loans, has sold most of its NPL portfolio and launched a company that will originate non-agency mortgages, according to industry officials who have been briefed on its plans.

JPMorgan Chase marked up the asset value of its mortgage servicing rights by 8 percent in the fourth quarter to $7.6 billion and reported strong residential lending results, funding $51.2 billion of product, a slight gain from a very strong third quarter.

The FDIC approved a final rule this week that will set new appraisal requirements for nonprime mortgages. It’s the third rule from federal regulators in the past six days aimed at subprime mortgages, largely prompted by the Dodd-Frank Act

The federal judge in charge of overseeing multiple lawsuits filed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency against non-agency mortgage-backed securities issuers for misrepresenting deals that were sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rebuffed yet another motion by one of the banks to shut down the legal action.

In a few weeks the White House will release its new budget and there’s increasing speculation that it will ask for $3 billion to $5 billion for the beleaguered FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund…