Finance

Gleacher first acquired ClearPoint in January 2011, hoping the company would give it a competitive edge in the MBS business.

Real estate investment trusts that buy mortgage debt tumbled the most in a year Wednesday on the expectation that more homeowners would be able to prepay mortgages.

The quality of Fannie Mae's new business is the best it's been in years, but part of the reason its fortunes have improved is the shrinking nature of its loan loss reserves.

Surprises in the latest prepayment numbers include a notable surge in loans eligible for the Home Affordable Refinance Program.

The GOP leadership has not doled out committee leadership assignments yet, but observers said they expect outspoken free market conservative Rep. Jeb Hensarling to lead the House Financial Services Committee next year.

At least three firms bid on MetLife's $70 billion portfolio of mortgage servicing rights.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati purchased $1.9 billion of single-family loans from banks and thrifts during the first nine months of 2012, a 46% increase from the same period a year ago.

Freddie Mac's third-quarter results suggest that the mortgage giant is living off the refi boom: in 3Q its secondary market acquisitions supported home purchases of 1.4 million units, but 5.6 million of refinancings.

Late-stage delinquencies total an additional two million properties and 3.6 million more units are at "immediate serious risk."

The Federal Housing Finance Agency recognizes that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac likely will be around for a few more years—and the only way to reduce their dominance is to raise guarantee fees while providing a secondary market execution for private securitizations.

MetLife has been quietly trying to sell its servicing rights for nine months now.

Some potential investors wanted to pay cash for the REO pools and take title to the properties right away but FHFA nixed the idea.

It appears that the government-owned Ally Financial likes mortgage brokers after all, trusting them in the jumbo space.

Fannie Mae ended September with loan commitments to buy $76.5 billion of new mortgages, a sign that originations will stay strong until yearend.

At the end of September, Redwood Trust had 49 active residential loan sellers, up from 37 at June 30. It hopes to have 55 (correspondent) sellers by year end.

Overall, guarantee fees are as high now as they have been at any point during roughly the last decade, partly reflecting price increases that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac implemented in early 2008 as the housing market collapsed.

The rules for Realtors to get financing for properties to be repaired and resold.

Warehouse usage levels haven’t been this strong since the 2000 to 2004 time period when it ranged from 50% to 60%.

Will some of Residential Capital Corporation's massive servicing portfolio wind up at Home Loan Servicing Solutions?

More firms are contemplating selling servicing rights -- including the nation's megabanks.