Mortgage Servicing News articles from August 2006

Mortgage Servicing News archives from August 2006

Servicers Get Less Ancillary Income.(surveys )(Survey)
August 1, 2006... NEW YORK -- A survey by Moody's Investors Service found that ancillary fees earned by mortgage servicers declined slightly between 2003 and 2005, and technology and regulatory scrutiny were partially to blame. With servicers re-evaluating...

Top Subprime Servicers at 3/31/06.(rankings of the mortgage banks and their earnings)(Company rankings)
August 1, 2006... (Dollars in Millions) Total Servicing Vol. Percent Market Rnk Organization Name Location 3/31/06 3/31/05 Change Share 1 Countrywide Financial Corp. Calabasas, CA $117,847...

Popular Sees Opportunity.(Popular Financial Holdings)(Popular Mortgage Servicing)(plannings)
August 1, 2006... NEW YORK -- There's been a lot of talk about consolidation in the mortgage servicing business, but one financial firm thinks now is the time to jump into servicing. Popular Financial Holdings, the San Juan, Puerto Rico-based parent of...

Freedom Eyeing Irwin, But Not Its Servicing?(Freedom Mortgage Co.)(Irwin Mortgage Corp.)
August 1, 2006... WASHINGTON -- Freedom Mortgage, a moderately sized lender based in suburban New Jersey, is expected to win the bid for Irwin Mortgage Corp., Fishers, Ind., but likely won't get its $20 billion servicing portfolio, sources told Mortgage...

NatCity May Sell B&C Servicing Unit.(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... CLEVELAND -- National City Corp., here may sell its subprime servicing division, which ranks 12th nationwide in B&C housing receivables. As Mortgage Servicing News went to press, the bank had just announced that it was weighing "strategic...

Delinquency Rate Falls.
August 1, 2006... NEW YORK -- Delinquency and foreclosure rates registered broad improvement in the first quarter, though underlying factors continue to put upward pressure on overdue rates, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Doug Duncan, the...

Servicers Facing Boom in ARM Rate Adjustments.(Adjustable Rate Mortgage)
August 1, 2006... CHICAGO -- The refinancing boom may be slowing down, but servicers have another portfolio churning challenge looming ahead of them. One expert says that rising rates pose a potentially big threat to housing markets and companies with...

Ginnie Paves Way for Lenders to Shed Excess Servicing.(Ginnie Mae)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... WASHINGTON -- Ginnie Mae has issued a final rule that clears the way for its mortgage-backed securities issuers to securitize excess servicing and remove the assets off their balance sheets. Effective July 5, the final rule clarifies Ginnie...

Servicing Hedge Challenges PHH.(PHH Corp.)
August 1, 2006... MOUNT LAUREL, NJ -- PHH Corp., which is in the midst of an accounting review, released un-audited first-quarter performance measures last month, including what the company's CEO described as "disappointing" mortgage results related to mortgage...

'Third Wave' Augers Challenge.(SourceMedia Subprime Lending Symposium)
August 1, 2006... The mortgage market is changing, and that could pose challenges for companies that service home loans. The nonprime mortgage industry has evolved and changed dramatically in recent years, with one leading executive predicting at a recent...

Fraud: A View from the Trenches.
August 1, 2006... Mr. Effertz is vice president of industry relations at Interthinx, a provider of fraud prevention and decision support tools to the mortgage industry. There is a great deal of fraud in the mortgage finance industry. Though no single...

The Fannie Scandal: The 'Financiopaths' Did It.
August 1, 2006... When Ken Lay died of a heart attack in early July, two questions about the Enron scandal once again floated through my brain: why did Mr. Lay perpetrate one of largest corporate frauds in U.S. history, and secondly, why did he think he could...

Housing Turnover Continues to Boost Speeds.
August 1, 2006... Prepayment rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages collateralizing agency mortgage-backed securities fell slightly in June, with stronger housing turnover offsetting some of the decline in refinancing, according to Bear, Stearns & Co. ...

Bill Would Make Flood Insurance More Expensive on Vacation Homes.
August 1, 2006... WASHINGTON -- The House has passed a flood insurance reform bill by a 416-4 vote that phases out subsidized premiums on vacation/second homes and commercial properties - impacting an estimated 450,000 properties. In phasing out the...

Fidelity Will Buy Flood Policies From Liquidated Insurance Firm.(Fidelity National Property and Casualty Insurance)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Fidelity National Financial's subsidiary, Fidelity National Property and Casualty Insurance, has received approval to purchase the existing flood insurance policies from a company that has been placed in receivership by...

Several Second-Lien Servicers Get Ratings.
August 1, 2006... NEW YORK -- Several servicers of second lien loans and home equity lines have recently received new ratings or ratings upgrades. Among those upgraded is Select Portfolio Servicing, which was upgraded by Fitch Ratings. Fitch raised SPS'...

Origen Receives Servicer Rating.
August 1, 2006... NEW YORK -- Origen Financial, a real estate investment trust that originates and services manufactured housing loans, said its servicing subsidiary has received a servicer quality rating of "SQ2-minus," or "above average," from Moody's...

MSR Chiefs Still Challenged by Environment.
August 1, 2006... Rising rates mean rising values for mortgage servicing rights, but the current shallow yield curve between long and short rates also has made hedging more difficult. At the beginning of the second quarter, 30-year mortgage rates hovered...

Countrywide Affirms Guidance.(Countrywide Financial Corp.)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... CALABASAS, CA -- Countrywide Financial Corp. has reaffirmed its 2006 earnings guidance, which was provided back in April, reiterating a range of $3.90 to $4.80 per diluted share. Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage servicer, said its...

Despite Hedge Problems, Pittsburgh FHLBank Sticks with MPF.(Federal Home Loan Bank , Mortgage Partner-ship Finance)
August 1, 2006... WASHINGTON -- The Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh is sticking with its Mortgage Partner-ship Finance program although it plans to limit its purchases of single-family mortgages and keep its MPF portfolio at 10% of total assets. In...

Fitch Takes Freddie Debt Off Watch List.(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... NEW YORK -- Fitch Ratings has affirmed Freddie Mac's debt and preferred stock ratings and removed from Rating Watch Negative its subordinated debt and preferred stock ratings. The affirmed ratings were as follows: issuer default, AAA;...

With Sale to WaMu Pending, MF Lender Settles Suit.
August 1, 2006... IRVINE, CA -- Commercial Capital Bancorp here, which is slated for sale to Washington Mutual, has settled a lawsuit with a "purported" shareholder who accused the multifamily lender of selling out too cheaply. In a filing with the...

Wells to Buy Reilly Mortgage.
August 1, 2006... SAN FRANCISCO -- Wells Fargo is acquiring Reilly Mortgage Group, a McLean, Va.-based multifamily lender with a Fannie Mae Delegated Underwriting and Servicing presence, for an undisclosed amount. Reilly Mortgage originates over $1.5 billion...

CDO Growth Creates New Servicing Opportunities.(collateralized debt obligations)
August 1, 2006... Rapid growth in the collateralized debt market also presents opportunities for commercial servicers. Commercial real estate-backed CDO issuance was at a record $20.53 billion in 2005, up 223.9% from 2004 levels, according to Wachovia...

White House Could Use Back-End Route to Limit GSE Debt.
August 1, 2006... WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is threatening to control the debt issuance of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - indirectly limiting their portfolio growth - if Congress does not pass strong GSE regulatory reform legislation. The Treasury...

FHLB Directors Oppose Proposal.(Federal Home Loan Bank )
August 1, 2006... WASHINGTON -- The directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati staged an early attack on a proposed capital rule and it looks as if other FHLBanks will be joining and demanding that federal regulators withdraw the rule or make...

Servicers Get Smart About SEC's New Regulation AB.
August 1, 2006... WASHINGTON -- Thanks to the Securities and Exchange Commission and a little industry pressure, private-label issuers, servicers and their auditors are becoming more comfortable with the testing and reporting requirements of Regulation AB. ...

Technology Aids in the Liquidation of REO.
August 1, 2006... NEW YORK -- In seeking to achieve maximum return on investment on their REO portfolios, most lenders and asset managers focus on obtaining the highest possible sales price. In today's market, industry insiders say technology is being used more...

TransUnion Offers Pay Data.(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... CHICAGO -- TransUnion here said it will gather rental payment history information to help credit grantors, including mortgage originators, make more informed risk, fraud and identity management, collections and marketing decisions. It is...

Mudd Defends Portfolio Role.(Daniel Mudd )(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... NEW YORK -- Fannie Mae CEO Daniel Mudd strongly defended the company's retained portfolio business in a conference call last week, saying that interest rate risk is low and the portfolio helps stabilize the U.S. mortgage market. He said...

Home Equity Conversion Market Continues to Grow.
August 1, 2006... NEW YORK -- Only a relatively small number of rated reverse mortgage securitizations have been seen in the United States, but the market is gaining some momentum and may be about to see a surge of activity, according to a recent report by...

Heirs May Oppose Reverse Mortgage Transactions.(Patty McGill)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... PHILADELPHIA -- The biggest opposition a lender will face in the reverse mortgage process is opposition from heirs, one mortgage broker who does these loans told attendees at the National Association of Mortgage Brokers annual convention here....

Home Futures Are Hedge Tool.(Robert J. Shiller)
August 1, 2006... DANA POINT, CA -- At the 2006 Predictive Methods Conference here, Robert J. Shiller, chief economist and co-founder of Macromarkets, predicted a decline in housing prices and called for more historic data to create a better method for detecting...

E-Signatures Withstand Scrutiny from Auditors.
August 1, 2006... BOCA RATON, FL -- For the most part, a significant portion of the mortgage industry is waiting for case law that upholds UETA and E-SIGN laws that stipulate that electronic signatures are legal and binding before adopting e-mortgages. Mortgage...

Hybrid E-Mortgage Notes Catching on with Lenders.(Fremont Bank)
August 1, 2006... SAN FRANCISCO -- While county recorders continue to stall greater electronic mortgage adoption, lenders are taking a hybrid approach to gain the same efficiencies until the counties catch up. For one, Fremont Bank here portfolios a lot of...

PHH Leverages Borland Technology for Off-Shoring.(Cendant Mortgage Corp.)(Borland ALM (application life-cycle management) )
August 1, 2006... MOUNT LAUREL, NJ -- When a new regulation came down from HUD or the FHA, PHH Mortgage used to have to stop new development projects to go back and work the regulation into its software releases. No longer. Today PHH leverages the Borland ALM...

Mortgage Fraud Special Report.
August 1, 2006... A public and mortgage industry debate on how fraud is affecting the marketplace is open and ongoing. Nobody has the ultimate tool to prevent it or uncover fraud. It is almost like a masked ball where the only thing obvious is the dancing floor....

Will 2006 Be Record Year For Online Identity Theft.
August 1, 2006... NEW YORK -- Today there are about three times more identities of U.S. residents on record than there are actual residents. Statistics cited at by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse show that the first six months of 2006, over 32 million U.S....

Zoot Conference Has Fraud Angle.(Zoot Enterprises)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... BOZEMAN, MT -- Zoot Enterprises, a provider of instant credit decisioning and loan origination solutions, has added several experts to address fraud, compliance, innovative business practices and industry analysis at its upcoming 2006 Credit...

Database Highlights Problem Loan Officers.
August 1, 2006... PHILADELPHIA -- There's a new cop on the beat in the war against mortgage fraud. Introduced formally here last month at the National Association of Mortgage Broker's annual convention, the Coalition Against Broker Fraud has created a...

Broker Registry To Track Fraud.(Coalition Against Broker Fraud)
August 1, 2006... PHILADELPHIA -- As part of a press conference at the National Association of Mortgage Brokers Annual Convention here, the co-founder of the Coalition Against Broker Fraud, Mitch Freifeld, came clean about his criminal past and acknowledged that...

Southern Florida, California Markets Look Vulnerable.
August 1, 2006... NEW YORK -- Foreclosures in the sunniest spots in the country - South Florida and South California - are rising rapidly with no slowdown in sight, according to real estate research firm for foreclosure properties Default Research. Default...

ProLender to Use Interthinx Fraud Detection, Support Tool.(ProLender Solutions)(Interthinx)
August 1, 2006... CALABASAS, CA -- Interthinx, a provider of fraud prevention and decision support tools for the mortgage industry, has successfully integrated its DISSCOSM fraud detection and prevention system with the ProLender Mortgage Lending System....

Fannie Settles Fraud Charges for $400M.(Fannie Mae)
August 1, 2006... WASHINGTON -- Fannie Mae last week agreed to freeze the size of its mortgage portfolio and pay $400 million in fines after federal regulators formally accused the GSE and former executives of orchestrating a massive accounting fraud that lasted...

Servicing People.(Irvine-Mavent Inc.)(appointments)
August 1, 2006... ALABAMA Birmingham-Kent Waltman has joined Collateral Mortgage Capital's senior management team as director of agency lending. Before joining Collateral, Mr. Waltman served in Fannie Mae's structured transactions area in developing...