Not only is the spring home buying season beginning to show signs of life, so too is the M&A market for mortgage companies.

The Johnson-Crapo bill would subject Quicken and all the other nonbanks to FDIC-like examinations.

There has been talk in the market that JPM would unload some of its “high touch” MSRs this year, but so far brokers that play in the space have reported no scheduled auctions.

Early in the morning, Ocwen’s share price was up almost 3 percent, but by noon had settled down. Trading volume was slightly above average.

In a 10-K filing, PHH said its mortgage business relies on just two firms for 41 percent of its private-label retail business: Merrill Lynch Home Loans at 29 percent and Morgan Stanley at 12 percent.

How does the Johnson-Crapo bill favor senior preferred shareholders? The language notes that when assets in Fannie and Freddie are eventually sold, the idea is to “maximize the return for the senior preferred share-holders of the enterprises”…

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.

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.

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

Observers note that Barclays Bank is in the process of settling on a recent large NPL auction as well.