RPM Mortgage, Alamo, CA, is in serious negotiations to buy at least two other mortgage banking firms – or their assets – and has its eye on at least one other shop, according to investment banking officials who claim to have knowledge of the situation. If the acquisitions come to fruition, they could put the privately held nonbank on track to be a $14 billion a year originator, said a source who advises the company. One of the target acquisitions is a $4 billion a year lender, the other a $650 million funder. A spokesman for RPM declined to comment. A few weeks back, RPM made...

Bose George, who follows PHH for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, also used the phrase “liquidation” to describe the company’s sale of assets.

AMC acquired Stewart’s residential due diligence and servicing functions, including credit, compliance, origination and servicing quality control reviews.

With rates falling again, lenders may be rethinking any planned layoffs...

The seller of the MSRs is a large nonbank based in the Midwest...

American International Group has announced the completion of the sale of its private mortgage insurance subsidiary United Guaranty Corp. (UGC) to Arch Capital Group Ltd. (ACGL), creating what could be the largest private mortgage insurance company in the world. On paper, the combined entity would account for 26.9 percent of the market, based on traditional flow business during the first nine months of last year. But lenders are expected to re-calibrate how they distribute their MI business and not all current UGC business will go to the merged unit. In fact, UGC saw...

Walter CEO Tony Renzi said the sale of the insurance affiliate will “reduce the complexity of our business operations..."

Consultant Joe Garrett notes: “It’s a very small club of mortgage bankers who’ve bought banks…”

With the purchase now complete, there are just six MI firms in the U.S.

With rates rising (and staying that way, for now) mortgage M&A is expected to pick up steam in the coming months...