Mortgage Servicing News articles from April 2002

Mortgage Servicing News archives from April 2002

MSR Values Called Into Question.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... It's not just the historic low interest rates of the past year that have called mortgage servicing valuations into question, the chief economist of Mortgage Bankers Association of America told industry executives meeting here. Other...

Servicing to Drive Future Profits.(mortgage lending industry)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The big are going to get bigger, but it's not just a matter of economies of scale, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Kenneth Posner. Rather, he believes that "best in class" loan origination and loan servicing costs rather than scale are...

Residential Debt May Crack $6T in '02.($6 trillion forecast for 2002)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... By year-end there could be $6 trillion worth of outstanding residential debt in the U.S., which means servicers should be plenty busy. According to figures compiled by this newspaper, residential debt totaled $5.608 trillion at the end of...

MSN/SPECIAL REPORT: Servicing Software.
April 1, 2002... Without advanced technology, how would lenders manage their increasingly large portfolios? Leading technology can help portfolio managers do more with less. Page 19 Copyright c 2002 Thomson Media. All Rights Reserved.

Top Residential Servicers / Average yield.(top thirty ranking)(Brief Article)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... At December 31, 2001 (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rank Organization Name 1 First Republic Bank 2 Golden West Financial Corp./World 3 Taylor, Bean & Whitaker 4 ABN AMRO Mortgage 5 Mortgage Investors...

Delinquency Rate Edges Down.(mortgage banks)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Despite a rise in foreclosures, the number of homeowners who were behind on their mortgage payments unexpectedly fell in the fourth quarter after climbing steadily for almost two years, according to a quarterly survey by the Mortgage Bankers...

At a glance Fourth quarter delinquency.(loans)(Brief Article)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... Rate By Loan Type: FHA loans: 10.97% VA Loans: 7.70% Conventional Loans: 3.00% Note: loans 30 days or more late. Source: MBA Copyright c 2002 Thomson Media. All Rights Reserved....

FHA Performance Problems Persist.(Federal Housing Administration)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The performance of the Federal Housing Administration 1-4 family program continued to sour in the fourth quarter as more loans became seriously delinquent and more loans fell into foreclosure, according to the FHA's own data. Despite what...

Delinquencies based on unpaid principal balance at 12/31/01.(ranking)(Brief Article)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rank Organization Name Location 1 E*Trade Menlo Park, CA 2 Pulte Mortgage Englewood, CO 3 Banknorth Mortgage Company...

Mozilo: Industry Better Off Today Than After 1998.(Angelo Mozilo, Countrywide chairman)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Angelo Mozilo, chairman of the nation's last big mortgage company that is not a subsidiary of a larger bank, believes the home loan industry is better off today than it was at the end of the 1998 surge of refinancing. Speaking at a...

Net Economic Value.(mortgage servicing)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, the best way to determine the value of a portfolio of mortgage servicing rights is to turn to the marketplace. Prices established by recent trades of similar portfolios are a company's first and...

Terrorism Threat Hurts Realty Lending.(terrorism insurance for commercial loans)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Mr. Quinn, president and CEO of Column Financial, an Atlanta-based subsidiary of Credit Suisse First Boston, testified on behalf of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America at a recent congressional hearing on terrorism insurance. Excerpts...

Mortgage Scene: The GSE/FM Watch Battle: A First-Quarter Review.(Federal National Mortgage Association and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... In the wake of Sept. 11, the FM Watch/GSE skirmish had died down a bit. After all, with the U.S. economy in a recession and the nation grieving over the tragedy, who in their right mind would slam two pillar's of the U.S. housing finance...

Speed Watch: February Prepayment Trends Reflect Seasonal Slowdown.(Bear Stearns Prepayment Commentary)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Seasonal factors, higher interest rates and fewer business days, caused prepayment rates of agency mortgage-backed securities to slow across the board in February, according to the Bear Stearns Prepayment Commentary. The magnitudes...

J.P. Morgan Chase Buys Servicing Technology Firm.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. has signed an agreement to buy Systems & Services Technologies Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of III Associates and a third-party servicer. SST provides a complete line of asset services, which include active and back-...

Commercial Servicer: Recovery May Take Hold Slowly for Commercial Real Estate Sector.(commercial mortgage backed securities)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Mortgage delinquencies have been in the news in the last year, with the economy in recession. And with the real estate sector likely to benefit only on a lagging basis from any nascent recovery, it looks as though the situation might not let...

Government Likely to Act As 'Insurer of Last Resort'.(terrorism insurance)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Limited coverage and the high cost of terrorism insurance is not only hindering commercial real estate lending, it is also forcing the federal government to realize it would be the insurer of last resort if there is another terrorist attack....

Credit Counselor: Mortgage Insurers Help Troubled Borrowers with Debt Counseling.(PMI Mortgage Insurance Co.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... As we all know, there is always a good long lag time between when a borrower starts to have economic problems and when they finally reach the point of foreclosure - usually about six months to a year. As we move further and further away...

Home Warranty Company Adds Mortgage Protection.(Warrantech Corp., CRES Insurance Services agreement)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Warrantech Corp., a firm that offers home warranties among its products, has signed an agreement with CRES Insurance Services that will allow it to offer Disaster Mortgage Protection. Under the agreement, CRES will provide a risk...

Index Shows 4th Q Housing Decline.(Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. report)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Co.'s index of housing market trends showed a decline in the fourth quarter of last year, becoming one of the first measures of housing market conditions to show weakness. But at the same time, MGIC said...

Hedging: Fast Rebound May Take the Pressure Off of Portfolio Managers.(mortgage rates, United States)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... This year began much the way last year ended for lenders. Mortgage rates held steady below the 7% threshold for over a month, and that generated a substantial volume of refinancing activity. The storm of portfolio churning continued for...

Fannie and Freddie Reaching Out to More Nonprime Borrowers.(Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. and Federal National Mortgage Association, United States)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last year securitized $22.3 billion in subprime loans, increasing their combined market share in the niche by 74%. According to figures released by the companies, Fannie Mae securitized $13.3 billion in subprime...

Freddie Mac Curbs Prepay Penalties.(Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. subprime loans policy)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Freddie Mac is going to stop purchasing subprime loans with prepayment penalties that are enforceable for more than three years. The new policy takes effect Oct. 1 and it is designed to curb abusive lending. Prepayment penalties are...

Technology Called Crucial for Managing Lien Releases.(Cendant Mortgage Corp. and BankAmerica Corp. information technology)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Last year, heavy refinancing volume meant that Cendant Mortgage had to manage about 150,000 loan payoffs, about twice the number the company had budgeted for, according to an executive who spoke at the MBA national mortgage servicing...

Is It 'Discoloration' or Toxic Mold?(health hazards and property values, United States)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Increasing attention to household health hazards may be taking a toll on mortgage lenders in some cases. In particular, "toxic mold" is now an issue that is affecting the ability of loan servicers to manage homes that have been acquired...

Safeco Select Becomes Safeco Financial Institutions.(Safeco Select Insurance Services; Safeco Financial Institutions Solutions)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Safeco Corp. has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Safeco Select Insurance Services here, has changed its name to Safeco Financial Institutions Solutions to reflect a broader array of property and casualty insurance products and...

MBA Expects Refis to Slow.(Mortgage Bankers Association of America; refinancing)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The Mortgage Bankers Association of America expects refinancing activity to account for 37% of new home loans this year, down a full 20 percentage points from last year's record 57% refinancing share. MBA chairman James Murphy, who is also...

Top Subprime Servicers at 12/31/01.(mortgage service companies)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rank Organization Name Location 1 Household Financial Services Prospect Heights, IL 2 CitiFinancial/Associates Baltimore, MD 3 BankAmerica/CFG Real Est. ...

Servicing software Special Report.(mortgage industry software)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... In a technology dependent industry like mortgage lending, software is too big a topic for one special report. Just about everything you do in your business requires some level of automation to make it more efficient. In fact, the field of loan...

Connecticut Affordable Housing Group Chooses Interlinq's MortgageWare.(mortgage lender chooses software)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... While giant mega-lenders that manage millions of home loans control the lion's share of outstanding mortgages, smaller niche lenders continue to play a vital role in the market. And technology is helping them keep pace with much larger firms....

GAC Software Helps Title Industry.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... General American Corp. here, a national technology solutions provider to the real estate settlement services industry, has released an ASP version of its GATORS order management and fulfillment system used by settlement service companies and...

Acenza Bridges Gap Between Origination and Servicing Applications.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... When Nisys and FileNet began looking for opportunities to serve the mortgage industry with new technology, they found the origination and servicing sectors served by a crowded field of technology vendors. But they also found gaps between...

FICS Carves Out Credit Union Niche.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Financial Industry Computer Systems, a company that provides mortgage origination and servicing technology, has announced that US Mortgage has selected FICS' residential mortgage loan servicing system, Mortgage Servicer, for use in its CU...

Fidelity Aims to Save Time and Money.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Fidelity National Information Solutions, a provider of real estate-related information and technology services, has added a number of new collateral valuation and risk management products to its menu. The new services are part of ValueSure...

First American Forms Default Alliance.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... First American Real Estate Information Services, a subsidiary of the First American Corp., has formed an alliance with Symetrix and an affiliated firm, Specialized Inc., of Virginia to cross-promote default services in strategic markets across...

Alltel: Changes Worth $100MM.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Alltel Information Services made almost $100 million of enhancements to its Mortgage Servicing Package last year, the company said. Alltel said the clients of its mortgage servicing automation technology determined the value that was added...

Framework Joins Alliance with RealEC.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Framework, a national provider of technology and enterprise software for financial institutions, said its new alliance with RealEC Technologies, Santa Ana, Calif., will enhance its vendor management capabilities. RealEC provides a...

MERS Sees Commercial Opportunity.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... After having gained good acceptance on the residential side of the mortgage industry, the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems initiative is gathering critical mass to take on the commercial side as well. The initiative, which began...

TransUnion Offers Online Services.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... One of the nation's largest credit repositories has decided to offer online risk management services. TransUnion has announced the availability of TransUnion Data Connect, a new online risk assessment service that enables lenders to...

Pressure Builds to Forgive Loans.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... To help victims of predatory lending, special organizations are turning up the pressure on lenders, and even servicers, to forgive part of the loan so it can be restructured. "By the time we get a client, the loan has been sold three or...

Residential Debt Outstanding, 2001 and Past Year Comparisons.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... (Dollars in Billions) Cal. Year-end Res. Debt Out. Mkt. Sh., Top 5 2001 $5,608 37.00 % 2000 $5,193 31.73 % 1999 $4,793 27.32 % ...

Commercial & Multifamily Debt Outstanding in the U.S.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... (Dollars in billions) Cal. Year-end Com. Debt Out. MF Debt. Out. 2001 $1,247 $445 2000 $1,179 $409 1999 $1,114 $375 Notes: MSN...

Snapshot: Average Servicing Results.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... (Dollars in Millions) 2001 2000 1999 1998 Net Financial Income $(42) $106 $93 $46 Net Operational Income $368 $309 $285 $221 Source: MBA study of mortgage servicers....

Servicing People.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... CALIFORNIA Los Angeles- LendingApps Inc., a commercial mortgage software company, has appointed Gregory Pretko as a senior account director. Prior to joining the company, he served as a marketing manager at e-Cognita Technologies, a...