Paul Muolo

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is on the verge of filing a barrage of civil claims against investment banking firms that packaged nonprime loans into mortgage-backed securities while misrepresenting the quality of the underlying collateral, according to a new published report.

By now you've heard all the talk about the White House plan to hit a button and automatically refinance $2 trillion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans. The idea is to help both current mortgagors with LTVs north of 100% and late payers who are contemplating a strategic default.

MountainView Servicing Group, Denver, is auctioning off a $485 million portfolio of mortgage servicing rights backed by Fannie Mae loans.

Icon Residential, Irvine, Calif., recently pulled the plug on its plans to enter the correspondent lending channel, laying off roughly 120 full-time employees at the unit and a related division.

A few years back there was a growing school of thought—and factual proof—that the entire mortgage banking landscape would be 90% controlled by just five lenders and servicers, mostly megabanks.But that was before the bubble burst on housing and foreclosures soared to record levels.

It's now official: Bank of America has told the world that it's throwing its correspondent lending division overboard. Top managers in the group received word this morning. Of course, the news was inevitable.

Independent mortgage banking firms made an average profit of $575 per origination in the second quarter, a 66% gain compared to 1Q -- but a significant decline from two years ago when the average gain was $1,358.

After months of rumors, Bank of America made it official Wednesday morning, saying it would exit the correspondent mortgage space, where it ranks second nationwide.

To sell your servicing ‘released' – or not. That is the question. It's no secret that SRP (servicing released premiums) prices have been weak the past few years, but nonbank lenders take the cash up front because, well, it's cash. Of course, the megabanks (Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase) have been stingy on what they offer, realizing that they have a huge advantage over smaller players.

Mortgage Banking Solutions, Woodway, Texas, says it is currently working on four merger-related transactions with announcements on two of them coming shortly.

Even if the White House can pull off a large scale refinancing program to help troubled homeowners it likely won't help the mortgage insurance industry much, according to a new report from FBR Capital Markets.

The Kislak Organization's re-entry into the residential mortgage business is kaput.

One of the most maddening subjects to report on in all of mortgage banking is the nonperforming loan sector.

In recent weeks Bank of America has been telling analysts and shareholders that it is actively selling mortgage servicing rights while offering little, or no, details on what exactly it unloaded – and at what price.

Let's put Bank of America on the couch. If anyone can figure out its absolutely schizophrenic approach to mortgages over the past two decades drop me a line. Remember when it owned a subprime lender back in the 1990s and actually liquidated the thing even though it was making money?

The White House has been talking up a plan to help underwater borrowers who actually want to stay in their homes refinance, but from what we're hearing from lobbyists and at least one former administration official, it may be too little, too late.

Although residential origination volumes swooned in the second quarter, commercial mortgage production picked up nicely at many firms.

3Point Asset Management, Irvine, Calif., has hired Ron Millar as AVP in charge of sales and training.

Not only are residential loan applications booming, but nonbanks increasingly are tapping their warehouse providers for additional credit.

Freddie Mac purchased $21.7 billion of mortgages from its seller/servicers in July, its worst acquisition month of the year and only about half of what it bought in January.