“The greater comfort that banks have in the current regulatory environment has situated them as more potential buyers of mortgage servicing product than was the case several years ago,” Fitch Ratings said.

The share of GSE business that came from the top five sellers increased slightly in the first quarter of 2015 compared with the previous quarter.

Regulators found that New Day staff completed continuing education requirements for CEO Robert Posner and COO Paul Alger at least 18 times.

First Horizon announced on Thursday that its regional bank agreed to a $212.5 million settlement with the Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The settlement relates to First Tennessee Bank’s underwriting and origination of FHA-insured mortgages from 2006 through 2008.

Some 32 percent of first-time homebuyers said that referrals from friends, family or co-workers had a major influence on their choice of lender, compared with only 18 percent of repeat homebuyers.

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A focus on special servicing has helped Rushmore Loan Management Services increase its portfolio in recent years. Standard & Poor’s also recently upgraded the firm’s special servicing rating to “above average.”

CAPITAL HILL REPORT: Shortly before the U.S. Congress vacated the nation’s capital for its spring recess, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-ID, introduced legislation that would require all rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau be evaluated in the 10-year regulatory review process under the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act, which seeks to identify rules that are unnecessary, outdated and overly burdensome. The Dodd-Frank Act already requires the CFPB to similarly review every major rulemaking…

The decline in the use of principal reduction mods is concentrated on bank portfolio loans as opposed to mortgages in non-agency MBS.

Six firms issued jumbo MBS in 1Q 2015, down from eight participants the previous quarter.