Fannie Mae's total Book of Business, which includes the gross mortgage portfolio plus the total Fannie Mae mortgage-backed securities and other guarantees less the Fannie Mae mortgage-backed securities in the portfolio, decreased at a compound annualized rate of 0.1 percent in February, down to $3.1214 trillion. It was the second consecutive month of contraction for Fannie Mae's Book of Business after expanding for three out of four months between September and December.

Edward Golding, a senior adviser at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, has been named by the White House as the leader of the Federal Housing Administration, according to HUD.

This will be the second time in as many months that Ocwen has announced an MSR sale on an Agency portfolio of residential loans to Dallas, Texas-based Nationstar. In February, Ocwen announced its intention to sell the MSR on a portfolio of about 81,000 performing residential loans owned by Freddie Mac with a UPB of about $9.8 billion to Nationstar. Combined, the two MSR deals between Ocwen and Nationstar announced in the last two months include about 223,00 Agency residential mortgage loans with $34.8 billion in UPB.

The temporary factors that slowed economic growth include a drawdown in inventory, unusually high snowfall in some parts of the country, and the West Coast port slowdown. Fannie Mae expects the reducing of those factors in the second quarter combined with upbeat labor market conditions and positive consumer and business fundamentals to push GDP growth to 2.8 percent in 2015, ahead of 2014's pace of 2.4 percent.

Features of the 2015 Five Star Government Forum included keynote addresses from U.S. Congressman Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas), Fannie Mae SVP and Chief Economist Doug Duncan, and Freddie Mac Deputy Chief Economist Len Kiefer as well as Five Star President and CEO Ed Delgado's one-on-one interview with Acting FHA Commissioner Biniam Gebre.

According to Ocwen, the portfolio consists of approximately 55,000 performing loans owned by Freddie Mac. The transaction is subject to approval by Freddie Mac and its conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), as well as other customary conditions. Ocwen reported that it expects the transaction to close by April 30, 2015, and expects the loan servicing to transfer in May 2015.

In an update on its website dated March 2, Ocwen announced that it had "signed a letter of intent with a buyer on the sale of mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) on a portfolio consisting of approximately 277,000 performing Agency loans owned by Fannie Mae with a total unpaid principal balance of approximately $45 billion."

The non-jury trial in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York in Manhattan is scheduled to begin on Monday, March 16. If no last-minute settlement is reached, Nomura and RBS would be the first two financial institutions to go to trial out of the 18 lenders FHFA sued in 2011 to recoup U.S. taxpayer costs following the government's $188 billion bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2008, after which the government seized control of both Enterprises. The other 16 lenders have paid a combined total of about $24 billion to settle with FHFA, including $9.3 billion paid by Bank of America in March 2014.

These two transactions together represent approximately $55 billion in unpaid principal balance for which Ocwen has agreed in the last week to sell the mortgage servicing rights. Both of the transactions are expected to be completed in the next six months. According to Ocwen's announcement, the Atlanta-based servicer expects the two transactions will generate approximately $550 million in proceeds and "accelerate Ocwen's strategy to reduce the size of its Agency servicing portfolio."

Stegman said the Administration would not end the conservatorship of the GSEs without a viable alternative that provides that elusive balance between eliminating taxpayer risk while still allowing credit access.