Paul Muolo

Mortgage-related employment rose every so slightly in May with residential firms adding 2,600 new jobs during the month, according to government figures released Friday morning.

Unemployed borrowers with an FHA loan will not be required to make any full payments for at least 12 months – and possibly more – under a new HUD program unveiled Thursday morning.

In response to a recent blog/post I received close to 200 emails from readers who wanted to know more about Bank of America’s future in residential finance – including several from former workers who have landed elsewhere.

In a few weeks the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officially will open its doors, but it will be "months" before the agency promulgates any new servicing regulations, according to a top official there.

Over the time span of about a month Bank of America has lost a top residential lending executive (Doug Jones) and its warehouse chief, industry veteran Paul Szymanski. Both were hired away by PennyMac, a tiny (in comparison to B of A, at least) publicly traded REIT. In normal times it would be unheard of to go from a megabank to a small shop but we’re living in anything but normal times.

The Private National Mortgage Acceptance Corp. plans to make a big splash in warehouse lending and late this week unveiled who will lead the effort -- Paul Szymanski, once a top warehouse executive at the number one player in that niche: Bank of America.

Will Bank of America's purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp. go down in the history as the worst mortgage franchise purchase in world history? Chances are, the answer to that question is a resounding yes.

Fitch expects that Bank of America's recent settlement of mortgage repurchase and servicing claims will "positively" affect the ratings of roughly 10% of Fitch-rated residential MBS that are part of the legacy trusts.

Warehouse credit for nonbank borrowers is probably the most plentiful it’s been since financial markets melted down three years ago. Banks, both large and small, have entered the sector, realizing strong profits can be made for little risk.

Who needs to worry about MBS risk-retention rules when you can hold fixed-rate mortgages in portfolio?

Charbonneau & Associates is working on two mortgage-related acquisition deals, a sign that certain lenders are looking for a strong capital partner in anticipation of tighter net worth requirements.

A mid-sized California-based nonbank has been toying with the idea of selling a 20% stake in itself to outside investors, according to industry officials close to the situation. “They were looking for a capital infusion, even though they didn’t really need the money,” said one source.

G8 Capital, Ladera Ranch, Calif., has named Aaron Murray to head its nonperforming loan acquisitions team.

The nation’s top three megabanks – Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase – saw their second lien production volumes swoon in the first quarter, according to new figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.

Avenue Capital of New York, a hedge fund which has almost $14 billion in assets under management, is supposedly sniffing around the jumbo conduit space. One source told us that Jay Lown, a former UBS executive, is involved. From March 2008 to October 2009 Lown served as an outside mortgage banking consultant to the Office of Thrift Supervision…

PNC Mortgage said it has hired Lynette Hale-Lee from Prospect Mortgage to run the bank-owned lender’s Western regional area for strategic partnerships.

Stop me if you’ve read one of these types of stories: So-and-so has teamed up with Brand X and plans to form a jumbo conduit. I’ve written a half-dozen of these myself over the past six months. I write them, and then nothing happens. And why does nothing happen?

When the largest lender –by far – in a mortgage niche exits the sector it usually signals that trouble is afoot. But according to the head of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association, Wells Fargo’s exit from the reverse business is not a death knell.

Not every bank is heading for the hills when it comes to reverse mortgage lending.

Mortgages Services III, Bloomington, Ill., this week confirmed that it purchased Pinnacle Home Mortgage, an Illinois mortgage brokerage shop with seven full-time loan officers.