The Blackstone Group has finally lifted the 'cone of silence' on its acquisition of mortgage lenders. But will it disclose origination figures?

Meanwhile, PHH may be facing exposure on a front that investors had no clue about until recently: marketing service agreements...

The Blackstone Group this week finally completed its purchase of all or parts of PMAC Lending, a California-based lender that will help the investment banking firm establish itself in the red-hot West Coast mortgage market. Although the publicly traded Blackstone has maintained a cone of silence regarding its talks with PMAC, employees of the Chino Hills lender began reporting the news themselves through various social media outlets, including Facebook. At least two other nonbank lenders are in talks with Blackstone, one in California and one in Pennsylvania. A spokeswoman for Blackstone declined...

Two Harbors is starting to offer “expanded credit” mortgages via its conduit, including allowing for lower credit scores and higher loan-to-value ratios.

The case caught the attention of many loan officers and managers because it centered around the basic issue of what type of client information an LO can take with them when they depart one organization for another.

The Fannie Mae portion of the MSRs is top heavy in California product at 44 percent of the receivables.

Blackstone has bought at least one nonbank the past year and is eyeing several other acquisitions but has offered no commentary on its plans...

According to one published report, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is considering John Coffey as the next superintendent for New York Department of Financial Services.

Potential investors in RoundPoint Mortgage include PIMCO, which so far has spent several million dollars on due diligence and legal costs...

“Of course, there are no guarantees, and all of our announced sales may not close as we currently envision,” said Ocwen's Ron Faris.