Paul Muolo

Fannie Mae recently trimmed the ranks of its outside REO managers, eliminating roughly six firms from its vendor ranks.

The Mortgage Bankers Association, in a new comment letter to the CFPB, questions whether bank and nonbank residential loan officers should face the same rules when it comes to training and other issues such as “character” and “fitness” responsibilities.

But the HUD auction raises an interesting question: if HUD can unload nonperforming loans (NPLs) why can’t Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

American Mortgage Network is staffing up on wholesale management talent with three new senior hires.

Late last week we blogged about how certain wholesalers are telling their loan brokers to take a number when it comes to getting approvals (and processing) on purchase money mortgages. We heard from a handful of brokers who said their wholesalers were different and from a few wholesalers who said they can move things along quickly.

Bank of America is ready to hit the market with a $100 million package of residential servicing rights backed mostly by nonperforming loans guaranteed by Freddie Mac.

Ocwen Financial—an avowed nonblank—is in the envious position of being among the nation’s fastest-growing specialty servicers with a niche in processing problem loans that no other company will touch.

According to bank earnings reports of the past few weeks, residential fundings are on a tear—with the anticipation that application volumes will continue to hold steady or increase.

If the CFPB makes brokering impossible, how many brokerage shops can afford to convert into a mortgage banking firm? The capital requirement is currently $2.5 million, while rumors persist that it may be hiked to $3.5 million over the next few years. The net worth requirement is set by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and GNMA/FHA…

We’ve been hearing complaints lately from loan brokers that some of their wholesalers have been telling them to “take a number” and wait if they bring a purchase-money mortgage to the underwriting window.

Franklin American Mortgage Co. told its loan brokers that beginning Aug. 1 the firm will only compensate them using the “lender paid” model.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust, a fast-growing buyer of mortgages from correspondents—including jumbos—recently inked a deal to receive a $100 million repo line from Barclays Bank PLC.

You might say the megabanks – for now – are sitting in the catbird seat. They have more loan applications than they know what to do with – and they have no desire whatsoever to add more staff to handle the volume, because, well, that’s what happens when you have a cartel.

Wells Fargo was the nation’s largest wholesaler in the first quarter with a market share of almost 15%, but wholesale accounts for just 5% of its overall business.

Now that Wells Fargo has tossed its wholesale division into the deep dark sea, the question becomes: who’s next among the megabanks to leave?

Residential loan applications increased 1% for the week ending July 20 (from the week prior) but with refinancings accounting for 81% of all new business.

Alan Potts, until recently a senior vice president in charge of wholesale lending at Carrington Mortgage Services, has left the company.

Mortgage vendor Nationwide Title Clearing is continuing to hire new employees, adding 66 full-timers in the second quarter.

By now you’ve read the stories on the National Mortgage News website about private equity sniffing around the mortgage industry the past two years – and the chatter about some firm with $1 billion to spend. We don’t yet know the name of that fund but it’s interesting gossip nonetheless.

At least two bidders remain for the $30.8 billion of Freddie Mac mortgage servicing rights once owned by the now-defunct Taylor, Bean & Whitaker.