Mortgage Servicing News articles from February 2009

Mortgage Servicing News archives from February 2009

BoA's B&C Market Share Tops 19%.
February 1, 2009... Byline: Paul Muolo Charlotte, NC-Now that Bank of America has closed on its purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co., it finds itself the proud owner of two more subprime servicing platforms: Home Loan Services and Wilshire Credit Corp. ...

How Far Have Prices Dropped?
February 1, 2009... Byline: Ted Cornwell New York-The myriad of firms and organizations tracking home prices all agree on one thing: values have fallen nationally and by double-digit rates in some regions of the country. But beyond their agreement on the...

Surviving a Job Loss in Tough Times.
February 1, 2009... Byline: Amilda Dymi Needless to say, it never is a good time to lose your job. In the current market, however, one of the major fears faced by homeowners at risk of foreclosure or not is downsizing and layoffs. The unemployment rate...

Congress Seeks Stronger FHA Role.(Federal Housing Administration)
February 1, 2009... Byline: Brian Collins Washington-Legislation is in the works to revamp the Hope for Homeowners program and make the Federal Housing Administration refinancing program more attractive to borrowers and servicers. A bill introduced by...

New Owner Seeks Help with IndyMac's S&D Servicing.
February 1, 2009... Byline: Paul Muolo Washington-Now that Dune Capital and its partners have agreed to buy IndyMac and its $180 billion servicing portfolio from the government, it is already engaging in talks with 'scratch and dent' subservicers to take over...

SERVICING PEOPLE.
February 1, 2009... CALIFORNIA Irvine-Ameripath Mortgage Corp. has named Samantha Manfer director of business development. Prior to joining AMC, Ms. Manfer was the sales director with Provident Bank, and served seven years as business director for...

Foreclosures vs New Home Sales?(Conference notes)
February 1, 2009... New Orleans-Foreclosures and real estate-owned assets are competing with new home sales and the excess supply of existing homes on the market. As a result, speakers at a recent conference in New Orleans say construction lenders are finding it...

NeighborWorks Provides Foreclosure, AH Support.(Managing REO)
February 1, 2009... Byline: Brian Collins Washington-NeighborWorks America is shifting gears to provide more support for the development of affordable rental housing and to deal with the problem of vacant and foreclosed properties. The foreclosure crisis...

Banks Saw More Home Equity Loans Overdue in Third Quarter '08.
February 1, 2009... Washington-The delinquency rate on home-equity lines of credit reached its highest level ever in the American Bankers Association's third-quarter 2008 consumer credit delinquency bulletin. The HELOC overdue rate rose seven basis points...

Experts Say Modification Volume Is Likely to Rise.(Managing REO)
February 1, 2009... New York-Despite widespread public support and political pressure for lenders to streamline the process of modifying loans for troubled homeowners, a bevy of challenges has slowed the process of offering widespread, systematic relief. ...

Zillow.com Expands Online Real Estate Listings.(Managing REO)
February 1, 2009... Byline: Jennifer Harmon Seattle-High foreclosure rates and the rapid overall growth of the real estate-owned property market are fueling the expansion of online real estate broker communities such as Zillow.com, a provider of free national...

Scratch & Dent Expert Skeptical About Mods.
February 1, 2009... Byline: Ted Cornwell Santa Ana, CA-While many advocates of streamlined loan modifications are scratching their heads over data showing a high "redefault" rate on modified loans, one industry insider isn't all that surprised. Some...

New Firm Hopes to Auction Bulk REO Portfolios.
February 1, 2009... Byline: Jennifer Harmon Surprise, AZ-The director of operations for a new bulk REO website, which is slated for launch in February, has high hopes the new endeavor will help simplify and expedite real estate auction sales for institutional...

Tech Solutions For Distressed Mortgages.(Managing REO)
February 1, 2009... Byline: Jennifer Harmon Bethesda, Md.-Many lenders who funded payment-option ARMs and interest-only ARMs are very focused now on what is going to happen with the next wave of ARM adjustments. Linda Simmons, senior vice president of...

CampusMBA Aids Radian on Loss Mit.
February 1, 2009... Washington-The education wing of the Mortgage Bankers Association and mortgage insurer Radian Guaranty have formed a partnership to provide training on loss mitigation techniques and services for Radian's lender customers. The partnership...

Firm Run by Kurland Buys FDIC Portfolio.(Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.)(Stanford Kurland)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... Washington-Investment funds affiliated with PennyMac - a "scratch and dent" firm headed by former Countrywide top executive Stanford Kurland - have purchased a $558 million portfolio of 2,800 residential loans from the government using a...

Economic Pressure Adds to Bankruptcy Caseload.(Special Report)
February 1, 2009... Byline: James Comtois New York-Personal bankruptcy filings are now approaching one million as the credit crunch and deteriorating economy effects household finances. According to legal helpers, a national personal bankruptcy law firm,...

OTS Suspends A Top Regulator.(Office of Thrift Supervision)(Darrel Dochow)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... Washington-The Office of Thrift Supervision has suspended a top regulator - whose career dates back to the S&L scandal - for allegedly allowing IndyMac to backdate a capital infusion a few months before the alt-A lender/servicer was seized by...

Lenders, Treasury See Possible 'Utility' Role for Fannie, Freddie.(Special Report)
February 1, 2009... Washington-Declaring that the secondary mortgage market is '"broken," the Mortgage Bankers Association has formed a working group to explore what lies ahead for the industry in regard to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and related issues. MBA's...

Investors Proceeding with Countrywide Lawsuit.(Special Report)
February 1, 2009... New York- The plaintiff's law firm of Grais & Ellsworth is proceeding with a lawsuit filed against Countrywide Financial Corporation on behalf of investors in 374 mortgage securitization trusts. The suit, filed in December, seeks to force...

Attorneys Are Challenging Foreclosure Standing.(Special Report)
February 1, 2009... Byline: Jennifer Harmon West Palm Beach, FL-MFI-Miami, a mortgage fraud investigation and forensic auditing firm, said it is launching an investigation against several banks, including Deutsche Bank and LaSalle Bank, for what it alleges to...

Legal Issues.(Special Report)
February 1, 2009... Mortgage servicing executives can be forgiven if they've developed a taste for jokes about lawyers these days. After all, a souring economy, rising defaults, and increased scrutiny of servicing practices have left mortgage servicers in the...

'Cramdowns' Could Soon be Legal.
February 1, 2009... Byline: Brian Collins Washington-Key senators have reached a compromise with Citigroup that could speed passage of a bill that allows judges to modify mortgages and reduce or "cram down" the principal amount of the loan to the fair value...

Commercial Mortgage Debt Dips Slightly in 1st Quarter.
February 1, 2009... Byline: James Comtois Washington-The level of commercial/multifamily mortgage debt outstanding decreased slightly by 0.1% in the third quarter, to $3.44 trillion, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's analysis of the Federal...

Looking for a Bottom.(Editorial)
February 1, 2009... Mortgage servicers - along with investors, originators, builders, and just about everyone else with a stake in the housing sector - are still wondering when values will stabilize. So far, the news isn't pretty. Both Case-Shiller and federal...

A Glimmer of Hope for Home Prices?(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... Washington-Home price declines are showing signs of easing but it's too early to declare a bottom, according to preliminary figures compiled by First American CoreLogic. The company last week released an early preview of its November...

FASB Giving Lenders a Break on Impairment.
February 1, 2009... Byline: Brian Collins Washington-The Financial Accounting Standards Board approved changes to its impairment guidance last week that should reduce the amount of charges banks and other holders of mortgage-backed securities have to report...

ResCap Loss Mit Chief Jaberi Departs.(Javid Jaberi)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... Byline: Paul Muolo Horsham, PA-Javid Jaberi, senior vice president of servicing operations for residential capital corp. Here, has left the company as part of a reorganization, according to an internal memo provided to this newspaper. An...

Earthquake Risk Adds To CA's Housing Woes.
February 1, 2009... CHICAGO-The California housing market, which is still reeling from foreclosures and declining values, now has something new to worry about: what might happen to prices if an earthquake strikes. According to a report issued by reinsurance...

Low Rates Raise Specter of MSR Impairment.(Hedging)
February 1, 2009... Byline: Ted Cornwell As if mortgage servicers don't have enough to worry about heading into 2009, record low interest rates threaten to spur a new round of portfolio churning and servicing impairment. At least, that's the risk lenders...

Survey Finds Resistance to Mortgage Bailout Plan.
February 1, 2009... Washington-A survey conducted for Reecon Advisors, an independent real estate economics and information company, finds that a slight majority of people opposes using federal bailout funds to help pay the mortgages of homeowners who are in...

CRL Study: Subprime Foreclosures Exceed 1.5 Million Threshold.
February 1, 2009... Washington-A consumer group study finds that 1.5 million subprime mortgage borrowers have lost their homes to foreclosures, and another two million are at risk. The Center for Responsible Lending study also claims that foreclosures are...

FHLBanks Face Possible MBS Write-Downs.
February 1, 2009... Byline: Ted Cornwell New York-Under a "worst case scenario," the Federal Home Loan Banks may have to report substantial impairment in the value of their $76.2 billion of private-label MBS, but the true economic losses embedded in the...

Drawing a Line in the Sand on Bailouts.(Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008)
February 1, 2009... Byline: Paul Muolo I'm one of those crazy people who have read all 451 pages of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, which President Bush signed into law on Oct. 3. For all you novices out there that would be the $700 billion bailout...

Title Firms Can Assist With Modifications.(Point of View)
February 1, 2009... Byline: Bruce Hawley Despite tough economic times, many companies in the real estate services industry are finding new business opportunities to assist the embattled real estate, finance and banking industries. In particular, title...