Mortgage Servicing News articles from April 2003

Mortgage Servicing News archives from April 2003

Churning Takes a Toll.
April 1, 2003... New Orleans-Refinancing may be a boon to loan originators, but loan servicers are finding that the longest refi boom in history is taking a toll on their productivity. Specifically, the direct costs of servicing loans rise as a result of...

London Bridge for Sale?(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Fidelity National Financial here, the "PacMan" of vendor acquisitions, may be poised to strike again. Sources say London Bridge has put its mortgage technology assets up for bid and FNF - which is trying to become a "bundled services"...

A Permanent Refi Boom?(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... With mortgage rates at a four-decade low, it's little wonder that refinancing continued to account for about three-quarters of loan applications. But at least one economist believes that even when interest rates start to rise, lenders may...

Congress May Add to Relief For U.S. Military Personnel.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... With 200,000 troops massed on the Iraqi border, lawmakers in Congress are looking for ways to express their support for servicemen and women, and one possibility is lowering the interest rates on their mortgages. Under the Soldiers' and...

NEWS ANALYSIS: GMACCM For Sale, But Will it Close?
April 1, 2003... Will General Motors get its price for GMAC Commercial Mortgage, the nation's largest commercial servicer? Maybe, maybe not, but according to some commercial mortgage executives, GM's timing couldn't be worse. "It's a tough sell," said...

MSN/SPECIAL REPORT: Software Update.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... From loan boarding to lien releases, lenders are looking for technology that will help them do more with less. Page 15 Copyright 2003 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Replenishment Ratio of Top Servicers in 2002.(Illustration)
April 1, 2003... (part 1 of 2) Rank Organization Name Location 1 Homecomings/GMAC-RFC Bloomington, MN 2 National City Mortgage Miamisburg, OH 3 ABN Amro Mortgage ...

S&P: Only 1.06% of Residential MBS Default over 25-Year Period.(Standard & Poor's)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Over the last 25 years, just 1.06% of residential mortgage-backed securities rated by Standard & Poor's have defaulted, according to S&P officials who recently spoke about their 2002 rating transition study. But a surprisingly large share...

Problem FHA, VA Loans Get New Life.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... A fast growing niche in the mortgage securities market is a byproduct of falling interest rates and the high default rate in government-guaranteed loan programs. According to Moody's Investors Service, loans backed by the Federal Housing...

Regulators Scrutinize MSA Values.(mortgage servicing assets )
April 1, 2003... The incredible runoff rate for residential servicing rights has prompted federal banking regulators to step up their examinations of large depository-owned mortgage banking shops. Bank examiners want to make sure banks are properly valuing...

Cendant Sees Second Year of Big Impairment Charges.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Cendant Mortgage here, the nation's ninth largest residential servicer, took a $263 million servicing "impairment" charge in 2002. A year earlier, the company took a $155 million charge, bringing its two-year impairment total to $419...

Subprime on Your Mind?(MBA National Mortgage Servicing Conference )
April 1, 2003... So what were people talking about at this year's annual MBA National Mortgage Servicing Conference? Portfolio churning was a big concern, as you'd expect it to be in the third year of a refinancing boom. Collection practices, technology and...

Is Mold a New Crisis?
April 1, 2003... Mr. Johnson is executive director, Environmental Education Foundation and a United Nations Environmental, Health & Safety consultant. This viewpoint is an excerpt from an article prepared by the EEF about how mold litigation is affecting...

Mortgage Banking: No One Ever Leaves, Really.
April 1, 2003... What's that old F. Scott Fitzgerald line about there being no "second acts" in American lives? I know I've probably misquoted the great author, but I think you get the point. But in mortgage banking - perhaps more than most financial...

Bad Weather in February Slows Pace of MBS Prepayment Activity.
April 1, 2003... Prepayment rates for agency mortgage-backed securities were mixed in the February reporting period, as speeds rose for 30-year coupons below 6.5%, but generally held steady or slowed for coupons at or above that level. The 6.0% Fannie Mae...

Loan Protector Upgrades Service.
April 1, 2003... Loan Protector Insurance Services, which offers Internet-enabled solutions for tracking and force placing all types of insurance for residential and commercial loan servicers, has upgraded two of its products, EasyTrackSM and INS for Web. ...

MSR Risk Attracting Attention of Regulators, Rating Agencies.
April 1, 2003... Fitch Ratings recently placed Countrywide Financial Corp. on notice that it could see a downgrade on its debt rating because of concern about the valuation and durability of its mortgage servicing rights. And Fitch isn't the only organization...

WaMu Aims for the 'Z-State' in Building National Default Business.(Washington Mutual)
April 1, 2003... A few years ago, Washington Mutual started work on a vision and business model that included a five-year plan to be able to service one million loans. But an aggressive acquisition effort has accelerated WaMu's growth plans. Now, long...

B&C Borrowers Find It Hard To Catch Up with Late Bills.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... When servicing lower credit-rated home loan customers, lenders need to remember that these are people who haven't saved a lot to get them through a rainy day. "By the time they have stopped paying their mortgage, you are competing with a...

B&C Default Risk Remains at High Level.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... The risk of mortgage default on nonprime credit quality loans has risen 30% since 1998, according to a quarterly study by University Financial Associates. Dennis Cappoza, professor of finance at the University of Michigan and a principal...

Murrayhill Expands Business Model to Touch Whole Deals.
April 1, 2003... The Murrayhill Co., Denver, made a name for itself by helping investors manage risk on the bottom pieces of mortgage-backed securities transactions. Now, the company has expanded its niche by offering its services to Wall Street...

Lenders Should Service Customers Rather than Loans.
April 1, 2003... Top officials with the Mortgage Bankers Association of America believe that lenders can improve cross-sales and customer retention by placing a higher emphasis on service quality. Speaking at the MBA's servicing conference here, Martin...

Home Price Gains Likely to Slow Down.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Industry economists are backing up what recent statistics have indicated - that home price growth has slowed down. Fueled by low interest rates and a tight market, home prices have risen significantly faster than inflation in recent...

Record Volume Fuels Flagstar's Growth.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Flagstar Bancorp Inc. reported fourth-quarter earnings of $32.1 million ($1.03 earnings per share), up from $29 million ($0.95 EPS) for the same period in 2001, mostly driven by a record mortgage production volume of $15.6 billion, or $4.6...

Roundup: Fitch Expects to See CMBS Delinquencies Edge Up.
April 1, 2003... Delinquencies of loans in commercial mortgage-backed securities monitored by Fitch Ratings rose to 1.31% in the fourth quarter, and Fitch is forecasting rising delinquencies over the coming year, according to the rating agency. In 357...

Marketplace Cost and Acceptance of Terror Insurance Still Uncertain.
April 1, 2003... A Feb. 26 deadline for insurers to offer terrorism insurance coverage, on insurance policies in effect before the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act was passed last November, has gone by without much change in the status quo. A clear pricing...

Special Report: Servicing Software Update.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Last year, lenders managed to originate an estimated $2.5 trillion in home loans - some experts put the figure closer to $2.7 trillion - with only a modest increase in staffing. Just to put that in perspective, before 1998, annual lending...

New Workflow Tool from AP3 Solutions Aims to Trim Default Timeframes.
April 1, 2003... Donald Pettingill, president of AP3 Solutions LLC, is a man on a mission - to evangelize mortgage industry adoption of Business Process Management, the advanced workflow technology that some say is essential to realization of electronic...

Top Residential Servicers and Their Servicing Systems.(Illustration)
April 1, 2003... (part 1 of 2) Rank Organization Name Location 1 Washington Mutual Seattle, WA 2 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Des Moines, IA 3 Countrywide Financial Corp. Calabasas, CA ...

Fidelity Expects Good Fit with Alltel.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Executives at Fidelity National Financial and Alltel Information Services say the marriage of the two firms marks an evolution in the outsourcing of mortgage services. Ernie Smith, Fidelity's co-chief operating officer, said that even...

Alltel Finishes Year-End Work In Record Time.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Alltel completed 2002 year-end processing of 23.7 million mortgage loans serviced using the Alltel Mortgage Servicing Package in 27 hours, setting a company record for the number of loans processed in this timeframe. "Alltel has...

CBC Selects CreditXpert's Tools.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... CBC Companies, Columbus, Ohio, a credit reporting service that serves more than 50,000 customers nationwide, has added CreditXpert Inc.'s line of personalized consumer credit management tools and content to complement their credit reporting...

RealEC Documents Cost Savings.
April 1, 2003... Chalking up a reported 290% increase in volume in less than six months, the RealEC Exchange processed a million orders between November 2002 and January 2003. According to the announcement, the RealEC Exchange e-commerce platform now...

Ignition Hits Record Volume.(Ignition Mortgage Technology Solutions Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Ignition Mortgage Technology Solutions Inc., a Freddie Mac company and provider of mortgage pricing, risk management and custom development services, says that its LockPoint Xtra and Pipeline Tools products supported more than $196 billion in...

Transamerica Guarantees Quick Tax Line Boarding.
April 1, 2003... Transamerica Real Estate Tax Service has created a new product that provides tax-line information to mortgage lenders before or within days of boarding a loan on the servicing system of record. The new product, PowerLines Plus, capitalizes...

SMI Touts 'Cradle to Grave' Automation of Mortgage Lending Functions.(Stewart Mortgage Information)
April 1, 2003... What does it take to streamline the mortgage transaction? Attendees of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's national technology in mortgage banking conference heard how some experts answer this question thanks to a session proposed by...

Digital Appraiser Tracking.
April 1, 2003... FNC here will roll out a new technology tool this week that will make appraisers easier to track and manage at the same time it introduces the use of digital signatures to the mortgage industry on a broad scale. The company's Digital...

Ocwen Integrates Default Tools.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Ocwen Technology Exchange, a subsidiary of Ocwen Financial Corp. here, will release an integrated default management system called REALResolution. Ocwen said the system is an end-to-end default system suitable for both prime and subprime...

Servicing People.(Lynn Halstead has been named senior vice president of national lending and acquisitions for Option One Mortgage Corp)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... CALIFORNIA Irvine-Lynn Halstead has been named senior vice president of national lending and acquisitions for Option One Mortgage Corp. In this newly created position, she oversees a business channel that forms partnerships with financial...

Fannie Prefers Berkadia for Conseco.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Even though CFN Investment Holdings was the winning bidder for Conseco Finance, the bankrupt manufactured housing and home equity lender, Fannie Mae prefers that losing bidder Berkadia take over the servicing portfolio for the...