Mortgage Servicing News articles from February 2004

Mortgage Servicing News archives from February 2004

FHA Loss Rate Climbing Fast.(Federal Housing Administration )
February 1, 2004... In their zeal to increase the U.S. homeownership rate, the Bush and Clinton administrations liberalized FHA underwriting guidelines - but now the chickens are coming home to roost. According to a new independent audit conducted by KPMG LLP,...

FHA Insurance Claims.(Federal Housing Administration)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
February 1, 2004... ($ in billions) Category 2003 2002 % Chg # of Claims 85,186 65,026 31% Claims Paid $7.8 $5.5 42% Source: KPMG Audit Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved....

Plaintiffs Aim for Ocwen.(abusive servicing practices)
February 1, 2004... Suing subprime firms for "predatory" servicing is a growth industry and class-action attorneys appear to have set their sites on a new target: Ocwen Federal FSB of West Palm Beach, Fla. Several lawsuits have been filed in California...

Principal Sees MSR Loss.(Principal Financial Group)(Mortgage Service Rights )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, will write down the value of its residential servicing assets in the fourth quarter, reducing net income and operating earnings by $70 million to $110 million. Principal's president of insurance and...

WACs Point to Less Churning.(Weighted Average Coupon)(home loans)
February 1, 2004... With interest rates averaging just about 5.8% for prime credit quality, 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages in late January, refinancing continued to account for about half of the loan origination market. But that is not expected to last. Housing...

Top Residential Servicers And Their Average Coupons at Sept. 30, 2003.
February 1, 2004... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rank Organization Name Location 1 Homecomings/GMAC-RFC Bloomington, MN 2 Doral Financial Corp. San Juan, PR 3 Bank of Hawaii ...

MSN/Special Report: Servicing Technology.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... With refinancing poised to slow down this year, lenders can pay more attention to enhancing their systems technology. That should boost productivity in the long run. Page 17 Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved....

GMACCM Deal Collapsed Over Reps and Warranties.(General Motors Acceptance Corporation )
February 1, 2004... In the end, the giant automaker from Detroit decided that it loves the commercial lending and servicing business after all. The sale of GMAC Commercial Mortgage - the nation's largest commercial servicer - fell apart in early December amid...

Williams to Head Flood Group.(Tara Williams heads National Flood Determination Association)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Tara Williams, senior vice president for Stewart Mortgage Information, has been elected the incoming president of the National Flood Determination Association. The NFDA is a national nonprofit trade association of companies, vendors and...

Congress Reinstates VA's REO Sales Effort.(Department of Veterans Affairs)(Real Estate Owned )
February 1, 2004... Congress has reinstated the "vendee" loan program that the Department of Veterans Affairs used to finance the sale of its foreclosed properties. And it could be a real bonus for Ocwen Financial Corp., which recently won the contract to...

Banking Industry Gains Strength Despite Real Estate Woes.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Banks reported a 1.5% decline in nonperforming loans during the second quarter despite persistent concern about some real estate loans, according to data compiled by Weiss Ratings, Jupiter, Fla. The total volume of nonperforming loans fell...

MSR Values Seen Rising This Year.(Mortgage Service Rights)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... The biggest M&A deal of 2004 could turn out to be the sale of Cendant Mortgage, the nation's 10th largest servicer, that is, if the company is really for sale. Confused? Welcome to a new year in mortgage banking, a year in which mortgage...

The Principal Lesson.
February 1, 2004... Principal Financial Group, the parent of Des Moines-based Principal Residential Mortgage announced in December that a writedown of its mortgage servicing rights would reduce net income and operating earnings by upwards of $70 million. In and of...

Solving the Data Access Problem.
February 1, 2004... Mr. Scheuble is executive vice president for product development and strategy at the mortgage division of Fidelity Information Services. He has 23 years of experience in the financial services technology area, with the last 11 being devoted...

A Dream Worth Dreaming: Fannie's 'Charter Chuck'.(Federal National Mortgage Association)
February 1, 2004... There must be days when Fannie Mae chairman Franklin Raines goes home, metaphorically kicks the dog and says to himself over a double bourbon: "Why do I put up with this?" If you've been following the Fannie/Freddie saga of the past eight...

December Data Shows Little Change in MBS Prepayment Activity.(Mortgage Backed Securities )
February 1, 2004... Prepayment rates of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities were mixed in the December reporting period, after slowing an average of 20% across the board in November. Analysts Dale Westhoff and Bruce Kramer of the Bear Stearns...

Calling All Hedge Managers: Don't Let Your Guard Down.
February 1, 2004... This could be the year. 2004 may mark the end of the refinancing boom. Economists predict that economic growth will accelerate and mortgage rates will edge upward over the course of the year. That means mortgage servicing portfolios will rise...

Interest Rates Forecasted to Rise.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... 2003 4th Qtr: 5.9% 2004 1st Qtr: 6.0% 2004 2nd Qtr: 6.1% Source: MBA. Forecast for avg. 30-year FRM. Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.thomsonmedia.com http://www.mortgageservicingnews.com

Roundup: Wachovia Strengthens Multifamily Presence.(Wachovia Bank)
February 1, 2004... Wachovia Bank has acquired Lend Lease Mortgage Capital in a $42.5 million deal that will strengthen Wachovia's presence in the multifamily lending and servicing arena. The acquisition gives Wachovia a servicing presence in the Fannie Mae,...

Fitch Has Reservations About 'Participated' Loans.(Fitch Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Fitch Ratings has expressed concern that "participated" commercial mortgage-backed securities loans, in which a single first mortgage loan is split into more than one note and held by different parties, are becoming more and more complex. ...

New Software Analyzes Commercial Mortgage Risk.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Moody's Investor's Service and Torto Wheaton Research, Boston, have teamed up to offer software for analyzing the risk associated with commercial mortgage whole loan portfolios. The software, which they are calling Moody's Commercial...

Criimi Mae Sees 3rd Qtr Loss.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Criimi Mae Inc. here saw a net loss of $7.4 million, or ($0.49) per share, for the third quarter, compared with a net loss of $25.1 million, or ($1.80) per share, a year earlier. The results include $4.7 million of impairment charges on...

Aftermath of World Trade Center Tragedy Tests CMBS Servicing Industry.(Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities)
February 1, 2004... When terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center complex - a symbolic, bustling hive of capitalism that had over 10 million square feet of commercial office space, as well as retail space - a little over two years ago, it was a watershed event...

Fitch Launches New CRE Risk Model.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... CreditVantage, a division of Fitch Risk, and the Boston-based Property & Portfolio Research have teamed up to launch a commercial real estate credit model. The alliance seeks to ally PPR's commercial real estate analytics capabilities with...

Legislation Would Modify REMIC Definition.(Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... The Commercial Mortgage Securities Association, the Mortgage Bankers Association and other real estate-related trade groups are eyeing proposed legislation that, if enacted, would modify the definition of a real estate mortgage investment...

Wells to Launch REIT Sequel.(launches the Wells Real Estate Investment Fund II)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Wells Real Estate Funds, a real estate investment management firm, has launched its latest offering, the Wells Real Estate Investment Trust II. The Wells REIT II offering is expected to bring in up to $7.76 billion through the issuance of...

Commercial Servicers and Their Delinquencies Sept. 30, 2003.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rank Organization Name 1 Leader Mortgage Company, The 2 First Fidelity Mortgage Corporation 3 Gershman Investment Corp. 4 Red Mortgage Capital, Inc. 5...

FAS 140 Won't Hurt Lenders.
February 1, 2004... The Financial Accounting Standards Board is still in the process of finalizing revisions to FAS 140 and Interpretation 46, but they are not expected to have much impact on the mortgage industry. The FASB's Fin 46, consolidation of variable...

NTS Puts Real Estate Taxes Online.(National Tax Search)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... National Tax Search here says that lenders can make management of property tax payments simpler and more cost effective through online tracking and reporting. The company, provider of an Internet-based property tax management system, works...

End of Refinancing Boom May Lead to Deterioration of Loan Quality.
February 1, 2004... Over the last two years, rapidly rising home values and heavy refinancing dramatically improved the credit quality of home loans packaged into securities, according to Standard & Poor's. High-quality borrowers locked into interest rates...

Average FICO Score on Subprime MBS in the 3rd Qtr (a sample).(Mortgage Backed Securities )(Fair, Isaac and Company )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Firm Avg. FICO Score Citicorp Mortgage 667 Ameriquest Mortgage 652 First Franklin 642 Fremont Investment & Loans 632 RASC 619 ...

Investors Expect High Recovery When ABS Go Bad.(Asset-Backed Security )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Most investors expect to recover a significant portion of their initial investment in defaulted structured securities, according to rating agency Standard & Poor's. According to S&P, residential mortgage-backed securities bonds that...

Only 3% of MBS End Up in Default.(Mortgage Backed Securities )
February 1, 2004... Less than 3% of the 13,419 U.S. structured finance securities issued over the last 10 years have defaulted, according to Moody's Investors Service. In its first ever study of default and loss in the event of default for structured...

Servicing Techonlogy.
February 1, 2004... With the pace of loan origination activity expected to slow down this year, lenders may have more time, and impetus, to focus on their long-term technology needs. And in the loan servicing arena, those needs are changing. For one thing, an...

GCC Servicing Enters 2004 with a New Name and New Look.(Glenn Computer Company)(GCC Servicing)
February 1, 2004... Glenn Computer Company has changed its name to GCC Servicing, and the company's president said the changes are more than just cosmetic. Glenn Liebowitz said his company's new name and logo better reflect its comprehensive approach to loan...

LoanPerformance Uses MicroStrategy System.(LoanPerformance)(MicroStrategy)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... LoanPerformance here has selected the MicroStrategy business intelligence platform for improved analysis and reporting of mortgage industry data trends. LoanPerformance provides data, software and analytics to the mortgage industry. The...

Profina Gives Counselors Ability to Download Credit Reports.(Profina Debt Solutions)
February 1, 2004... Profina Debt Solutions, an arm of credit counseling agency InCharge Institute of America, has formed a new partnership with one of the nation's major credit reporting bureaus to provide Profina's credit counselors with the ability to download...

Fidelity Gains Foothold in Puerto Rico with Doral Financial Contract.
February 1, 2004... San Juan, PR-Doral Financial Corp., Puerto Rico's largest banking institution, has signed a five-year contract with Fidelity National Financial Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., to service the bank's portfolio of approximately 150,000 mortgage loans...

Electronic Loans Slowly Gaining Ground.
February 1, 2004... The process of creating a truly electronic mortgage has been excruciatingly, but necessarily slow, key secondary market players said here earlier this month. James Newell, associate general counsel at Freddie Mac, said the need to move at...

What It Takes To Be An Electronic Mortgage.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... * Online application and approval. * The creation and collection of "smart" electronic loan and closing documents. * Electronic signatures on documents that are then sealed and encrypted. * Electronic recordation of documents that...

Deals Perking In M&A Market.(Mergers and Acquisitions )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Rising interest rates were supposed to revive the market for mortgage servicing rights in the new year but, so far, activity has been light. Topic "A" among servicing professionals currently is Cendant Mortgage Corp., Mt. Laurel, N.J., a...

Top Subprime Servicers at 9/30/03.
February 1, 2004... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rank Organization Name Location 1 Household Financial Services (E)(1) Prospect Heights, IL 2 CitiFinancial Baltimore, MD 3 ...

Servicing People.
February 1, 2004... CALIFORNIA Carson-Lissa Marie Cinat has been appointed assistant general counsel for Document Systems Inc. Ms. Cinat joined DSI after gaining experience with both national and international law firms. Prior to joining DSI, Ms. Cinat...

Countrywide Promotes Key Executives.
February 1, 2004... Countrywide Financial Corp. here has promoted Stanford L. Kurland to president, and the long-time executive has reconfirmed Countrywide's commitment to the mortgage business even as it continues to diversify. At the same time it named...