Paul Muolo

PHH Corp., the parent company of the nation’s largest nonbank mortgage lender, lost $57 million in the second quarter and signaled its intention to reduce its presence in the correspondent lending channel where it ranks seventh nationwide.

SunTrust Bank, one of the largest mortgage lenders in the U.S., is looking for a new executive to manage retail production after the departure of Martha Simmons Scott.

But rest assured, the CFPB will get around to auditing just about every nonbank lender of any decent size.

The government controlled Freddie Mac posted solid earnings of $1.1 billion in the second quarter – after paying the U.S. Treasury Department $1.8 billion in dividends on the preferred stock it owns.

Fortress Investment Group, which controls a large chunk of Nationstar Mortgage, has launched a $500 million private equity fund with a stated goal of buying mortgage servicing rights.

MountainView Servicing Group, Denver, recently completed the sale of three bulk packages of mortgage servicing rights that had combined balances of $487 million.

Community Trust Bank had $385 million in outstanding warehouse commitments at June 30, almost double what it had a year ago.

On Monday morning a rumor was making the rounds that a decent sized loan brokerage firm was considering selling out to a mortgage banking company.

The average cost to close a residential loan in the U.S. dropped 7% over the past year to $3,754, according to Bankrate.com’s eighth annual closing costs survey.

To date, Redwood Trust has completed six jumbo securitizations in the post financial crisis era through its Sequoia Residential loan business – with no delinquencies, according to the REIT’s new ‘Redwood Review’ report.

The nation’s largest residential servicers—which just so happen to be megabanks—are marking down their MSRs to near fire sale prices.

We’ve been hearing whispers about a Fannie Mae nonperforming loan auction for several months now. We understand the GSE has been actively telling people it could happen by yearend or early 2013.

Freddie Mac has named Charlotte Catalfo, a 28-year veteran of Principal Residential Mortgage, as interim senior vice president in charge of operations for its single-family program.

I know of two loan officers – one who worked for a bank, the other for a mid-sized nonbank – who recently gave notice and went out on their own to become mortgage brokers.

Provident Funding Associates, the nation’s ninth largest residential originator, has told its correspondent sellers that it will no longer accept mortgage insurance from the troubled MGIC Corp.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust, which started out in life solely as a nonperforming loan investor, is now cleaning up as a correspondent buyer of newly originated loans.

If you’re a flaming liberal in Congress you view the Ed DeMarco-principal-reduction controversy as follows: Fire that Republican now!

Over the past year Ocwen has agreed to purchase large MSR portfolios from JPMorgan Chase, Litton Loan Servicing and Saxon Mortgage.

Recently we heard of a West Coast REO auction where one investor arrived in a hotel ballroom (where the event was being held) with body guards and $40 million worth of cashier checks.

Ally Financial Inc. lost $898 million in the second quarter, blaming its troubled (and bankrupt) mortgage banking division, Residential Capital Corp., for its problems.