Secondary markets

Even though it still has some regulatory hurdles to clear, interest in jumbo lending has bumped up a notch.

Now that Residential Capital Corp. has auctioned off its $374 billion of servicing contracts, it’s Ally Bank’s turn to unload its MSRs.

A little over a year ago Bank of America sold $74 billion of mortgage servicing rights to Fannie Mae.

Residential Capital Corp. said it approved a $1.5 billion bid by insurance conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway to buy roughly 47,000 whole loans from the bankrupt mortgage company.

Freddie Mac acquired $39 billion of mortgages from its seller/servicers in September, a 5% decline from the month prior.

When Mark Korell joined the company in June he was named chief of sales and marketing.

Among other things, Bank of America is accused of continuing a high speed loan processing program dubbed "The Hustle" that started at Countrywide and cause massive losses at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

As part of the settlement, Royal Bank of Scotland has agreed to refrain from financing, purchasing or securitizing subprime mortgages unless it has sufficiently reviewed the underlying loans.

Some key regulatory issues still need to be addressed in order for private-label mortgage-backed securities to make a comeback.

A Washington research executive at Keefe Bruyette & Woods believes GSE reform may move quicker if Obama gets reelected, but not by much.

One servicing executive tracking the deal said Nationstar is favored to win the bid.

Wholesaler Mortgage 360 suports the Home Affordable Refinance Program.

A plan to extend the corporate bond transparency system to mortgage-backed securities is moving forward.

The servicing rights of Residential Capital Corp. could fetch just over $1 billion.

Aside from those potentially game-changing rules, banks are also facing higher guarantee fees by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and higher premiums for Federal Housing Administration loans.

The amount of capital required of depositories to hold residential mortgage servicing rights would jump to 28% under Basel III proposals from 17.2% today.

Ginnie Mae approved 34 new issuers in fiscal year 2012 (which ended September 30), bringing the total universe of government-approved firms up to 406.

Transparency is the word being thrown around by many at the meeting.

Residential Capital Corp. will be sold through an asset sale with possibly $4 billion in proceeds going to the bankruptcy trustee.

Fannie Mae and Ginnie Mae are seeking to protect taxpayers as a flood of new lenders apply to do business with them.