Paul Muolo

Should Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans be exempt from soon-to-be-released risk retention rules tied to the qualified residential mortgage test? So went the debate in Washington last week.

The dollar amount of second lien mortgage debt continued to fall in the fourth quarter with roughly $620 billion in loans outstanding nationwide, a 9% decline over the past 12 months, according to survey figures compiled by National Mortgage News.

Depending on who you talk to, the 'current' nonperforming loan market is either a bust or a great opportunity – or perhaps something in between. That covers all the scenarios, really, but I know of at least two firms that have exited the business over the past six months, with one more on the way.

Mortgage lenders funded roughly $33.2 billion of jumbo mortgages during the fourth quarter, a handsome 57% gain from the same period a year earlier, according to survey figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.

JPMorgan Chase chairman Jamie Dimon recently sat down with analysts at Citigroup Global Markets and told them what many smaller players in the mortgage business have believed all along: that a 20% downpayment definition on the 'qualified residential mortgage' test will benefit the nation's megabanks.

The only thing (possibly) standing in the way of the continued decimation of independent loan brokers are two pending lawsuits against the Federal Reserve Board challenging the central bank’s loan officer compensation rule.

Ally Financial Inc., which hopes to go public this year, has agreed to sell $1.25 billion of bonds related to excess mortgage servicing rights.

It's no secret that the Treasury would like to unload all, or most, of its stake in Ally Financial this year and until recently it looked as though its chances of a successful IPO were about 50-50. (It's one thing to sell a company, it's another to unload it at a fire sale price.)

Mortgage technology vendor Lender Processing Services on Friday announced that it bought PCLender.com, a top 50 provider of enterprise and Web-based mortgage software, including LOS systems.

It may sound crazy, but some mortgage executives I know are starting to talk about a coming shortage in homes to buy.

The Securities and Exchange Commission late Wednesday filed civil charges against a former operations chief at the now defunct Colonial Bank, accusing her of playing a key role in $1.5 billion warehouse lending related scam.

Former Freddie Mac chairman and CEO Richard Syron recently received a 'Wells Notice' from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which means the agency is considering filing civil charges against him related to his management of company.

On Monday the Federal Reserve's point man on loan officer compensation, Paul Mondor, was a no show at a legislative conference sponsored by the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. From what I understand, the week prior he had accepted an invitation to speak at the meeting — but that was before NAMB sued the Fed over the very same loan officer comp rule.

Goldman Sachs is once again entertaining bids on its subprime servicing operation, Litton Loan Servicing, Houston, and has approached a handful of bidders about making an offer, according to industry officials.

The Mortgage Bankers Association Tuesday afternoon confirmed that it has hired Federal Housing Administration commissioner David Stevens to head the organization, effective June 1.

Mortgage originators that have been quietly trimming heads the past two months may want to call back some of their laid off workforce. Tuesday morning, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury was down in the low 3.2% range compared to almost 3.8% a few weeks back.

With fears mounting that the GSEs may soon alter servicing compensation in a significant way, at least one Wall Street firm is making the rounds offering a 'sale leaseback' deal to some of the nation's largest holders of MSRs, National Mortgage News has learned.

Eighteen short months ago it appeared that warehouse credit was drying up with nonbanks paying dearly for lines—if they could even find one.

Interactive Mortgage Advisors, Denver, is auctioning off a $510 million bulk package of mortgage servicing rights tied to Fannie Mae loans in 20 states.

Prestwick Mortgage Group is auctioning off a $21 million package of mortgage servicing rights backed by Fannie Mae loans in Missouri.