Paul Muolo

We all knew that former FDIC chief Sheila Bair was hardly a fan of loan brokers, but did we realize her former agency is now hunting down certain third-party salesman for loans they facilitated up to four years ago that later went bad?

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are wards of the government and ultimately control billions of dollars of delinquent loans. The executive branch (the White House) controls the GSEs (more or less) and would like to see struggling homeowners helped by their servicers (who answer to the GSEs.)

Bank of America is exploring the idea of selling roughly $40 billion of mortgage servicing rights tied to Freddie Mac loans, according to servicing officials and investors who have been briefed about the plan.

The bank-owned PNC Mortgage Thursday confirmed that it hired mortgage industry veteran E. Todd Chamberlain as its president and chief operating officer beginning August 8.

The evidence is both anecdotal and statistical: the deconsolidation of the mortgage industry is underway. New figures compiled by the Quarterly Data Report show that certain megabanks are scaling back in correspondent lending while others (smaller players) are stepping up to the plate.

Foreclosure related filings fell by almost 30% in the first-half to 1.17 million actions, but it appears much of the drop is attributable to processing and procedural delays, according to new figures compiled by RealtyTrac.

Prospect Mortgage LLC, Sherman Oaks, Calif., has agreed to pay the Department of Housing and Urban Development $3.1 million to settle charges that it created sham affiliated business arrangements as part of a scheme to share in “kickbacks” paid to these joint ventures.

Steve Curry, a six-year veteran of Impac Mortgage Holdings, has left the lender to accept an EVP job with ClearVision Funding, a fast growing wholesaler based in Santa Ana, Calif.

Be thankful that you’re not a mortgage lender (or borrower) in Ireland. On Wednesday the yield on the 10-year bond of Ireland topped 14%. For a moment, let us all think about what a 14% yield on the 10-year bond in America would mean.

Oh the irony of the mortgage market! Loan rates are falling, home prices are the cheapest they’ve been (in most, but not all markets) in a decade, but the consumer is spooked by the prospect of the U.S. defaulting on its debt payments.

Roughly $25 billion of Freddie Mac servicing rights that once belonged to the now defunct Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. could hit the market by summer’s end according to officials close to the matter.

When it comes to the securitization market for residential loans, hope springs eternal that some day the private sector will take a large bite out of the government-controlled MBS market.

Todd Chamberlain, a 25-year veteran of the mortgage industry and the head of residential lending at Regions Financial left the company last week to take a job with a competitor, industry officials told National Mortgage News.

Bank of America on Monday tapped its legacy servicing chief, Terry Laughlin, as the bank’s new chief risk officer.

If Democrats and Republicans cannot reach a debt ceiling agreement by August 2 another financial calamity may be right around the corner: deposit insurance. Follow my logic here: A default by the U.S. means Uncle Sam no longer stands behind its obligations – which also means deposit insurance that is guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is worthless.

The Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee on Tuesday will consider seven new bills to reform the operations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, including one that prevents the Treasury from lowering the current 10% dividend the two pay to the government.

To all the dedicated readers of this column, it was nice serving you these past few years. Come Aug. 2 if those clowns in Congress (on both sides the aisle and in the White House) can’t reach a budget deal this is what will happen: the stock market will tank by 30%, and the yield on the 10-year will spike to say 6% (for starters) and then to 10% within a week if no deal is afoot.

Although residential lenders are starting to ponder cutbacks in their ranks, not all mortgage-related firms are worried about their head counts. 3 Point Asset Management, Irvine, Calif., hopes to quadruple its workforce to 100 full-timers by yearend.

MountainView Servicing Group, Denver, is offering a forward bulk servicing package where the seller will deliver $25 million to $50 million a month of Government National Mortgage Association (I and II) MSRs.

Perhaps, the June jobs number will be revised upwards next month, showing a large (and expected) gain in employment instead of the paltry 18,000 increase we saw on Friday.