Mortgage Servicing News articles from June 2001

Mortgage Servicing News archives from June 2001

Impairment Won't Sting Lenders.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... A precipitous decline in mortgage rates spurred heavy refinancing early this year, but after three months of portfolio churning, most lenders have dodged the bullet. There were exceptions, of course. Fleet Mortgage Corp., which is selling...

WaMu #1 Servicer - By a Hair.(Washington Mutual Inc.)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... It looks as though the residential servicing sector has a new top banana - Washington Mutual of Seattle. (Well, sort of). According to figures compiled by Mortgage Servicing News, WaMu was the number one ranked servicer at the end of March,...

With fleet deal, WaMu is Top Servicer.(Fleet Mortgage Corp.)(Washington Mutual Inc.)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Size of Firm Residential Market Name Servicing Share Washington Mutual $311,932 5.98 % Fleet Mortgage $143,992 2.76 % WaMu/Fleet: $455,924 8.74 % Wells...

Chase Faces Late Fee Lawsuit.(Chase Manhattan Corp.)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... In what may signal an emerging litigation threat for mortgage lenders, a consumer-oriented law firm here has filed a class action suit alleging that Chase Manhattan Mortgage improperly charged late fees to some borrowers. The law firm,...

Flow Market Gains Steam.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... When it comes to servicing prices, it's a tale of two markets right now, servicing brokers say. The huge refinancing wave hitting the mortgage industry has caused bulk servicing prices to retrench a bit but is creating somewhat of a bull...

Top 20 Subservicers at March 31, 2001.(Brief Article)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2001... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rank Organization Name Location 1 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Des Moines, IA 2 Dovenmuehle Mortgage (E) Schaumburg, IL 3 Cenlar Ewing, NJ 4...

Rising Number of Bad Loans May Stress Bank and Thrift Earnings.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Non-performing loans on the balance sheet of U.S. banks surged by 26.6% during 2000, according to Weiss Ratings Inc., a bank rating agency. Weiss Ratings said the increase is dramatic especially in light of the modest 2.9% increase in non-...

HanoverTrade.com Expands Into Servicing Rights Arena.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... HanoverTrade.com, a Web-based trading platform, has hired two industry veterans to lead its effort to expand into the management and trading of mortgage servicing rights. HanoverTrade.com has named Gerard Risi and Thomas Healy as senior...

Impairment Time.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... During the first quarter, interest rates on 30-year mortgages fell to near record lows. The Fed made several unexpected rate cuts. Refinancing accounted for well over half of new mortgage applications. Great news for loan originators, but it...

'Alt-A' Performance Surprises Some.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Analysts with Nomura found some surprises in the performance of "alternative-A" credit quality loans. The assumption that these loans have slower prepayment speeds than "prime" quality loans may be out of date. This viewpoint is an excerpt from...

Mortgage Scene: Is Mortgage Banking a "Crummy" Place to Spend Your Career?(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Not too long ago I was having lunch with a former top 10 mortgage executive who bluntly summarized the industry as a "crummy business" where the profit margins are too tight, capacity too high, and where too many people are employed. A...

Speed Watch: Have MBS Prepayment Speeds Peaked for This Interest Rate Cycle?(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Prepayment rates for agency mortgage-backed securities rose broadly in April, but they may have hit their peak, according to analysts at the Bear Stearns Prepayment Commentary. In the Fannie Mae report, seasoned MBS issues showed the...

Housing Staves Off Economic Downturn.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Thanks in large measure to a surprisingly strong housing market, the economy won't fall into a recession, an industry economist predicted at the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Secondary Market Conference in Orlando last week. ...

Bank of America Backs Out of the Popular 'Flow Servicing' Market'.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Bank of America Mortgage here, a large purchaser of residential "flow" servicing rights, has backed out of that market entirely, the company confirmed last month. One advisor said Bank of America Mortgage bought between $30 billion and...

MPF Guidelines Are Available Online.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Mortgage lenders participating in the Federal Home Loan Banks' Mortgage Partnership Finance Program now have access to the MPF loan origination and servicing guides via the Internet courtesy of www.AllRegs.com. Last month, the Federal...

Alltel Buys Xpede Mortgage Technology.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Alltel has announced the acquisition of Xpede's Financial Relationship Management (FRM) technology assets along with 30 of the firm's employees. Alltel will integrate the FRM technology into its own customer relationship management and...

B&C Servicing: "Deep MI Coverage" Boosts Credit Quality on Subprime MBS Deals.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... During the first quarter, issuers increasingly relied upon "deep mortgage insurance" coverage to bolster the credit quality of structured finance deals backed by subprime credit quality mortgage loans. Deep MI was used to reduce the...

Corporate Defaults Hit Record Level.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2001... New bond issuance hit a record in the first quarter of this year, but so did the number of global bond defaults, according to Standard & Poor's. U.S. corporate bond issuance for the first quarter of 2001 rose 270% over the previous...

Hedging: Freddie Mac Adds Agency Futures to Its Menu of Hedging Tools.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Freddie Mac announced that it plans to engage in the trading of agency debt futures for hedging purposes, a move that may help the giant mortgage secondary market player limit its "basis risk." To date, Freddie Mac said it has refrained...

Credit Counselor: Debt Counseling Agencies Gear Up To Serve Victims of Downsizing.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... With the continuous slew of layoffs in all industries due to the slowing economy, the mortgage industry may be facing a stream of defaults, delinquencies and foreclosures in the coming months that are higher than anything it has seen in years....

New York To Sell Problem Realty Loans.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... The New York Department of Citywide Administrative Services is selling a pool of approximately 300 mortgages with total outstanding charges of almost $30 million to a special-purpose trust named the NYC Mortgage Sale Facilitation Trust-2001....

Commercial: Prudential Will Pursue Third-Party Servicing Role.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Prudential Asset Resources, the commercial mortgage servicing arm of Prudential Insurance Company of America, plans to offer its servicing expertise to third-party lenders. Having gained approval as a commercial mortgage servicer from all...

Commercial: Economic Slowdown Hasn't Hindered Commercial Mortgage Primary Servicers.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Primary servicers in the commercial real estate sector have not been impacted much by the slowing economy. Dan Kirby, president, CapMark Services, Atlanta, said, "We have seen delinquencies ticking up slightly since last fall. What we...

Criimi Mae Ended Year with a Loss.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2001... Criimi Mae has reported a net loss of approximately $155.5 million, or $2.50 per share, for the year ended December 31, 2000, compared to a net loss of approximately $132.4 million, or $2.45 per share, for the year ended December 31, 1999. ...

Commercial Servicer: S&P: Slowing Economy Is Pushing Up CMBS Delinquencies.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2001... The weakening in the general economy is beginning to take its toll on the commercial real estate sector in the form of increased delinquency rates, according to Standard & Poor's. The rating agency reports that delinquencies within the CMBS...

Midland Added $13 Billion to CMBS.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2001... Midland Loan Services, a PNC Real Estate Finance Company, earned the servicing rights to seven commercial mortgage-backed securities transactions totaling $5.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2000, the company has reported. For the whole...

Collateral Passes the $2 Billion Mark.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Collateral Mortgage's commercial and multifamily servicing portfolio has recently surpassed the $2 billion mark, the company has reported. David A. Roberts, president and chief operating officer for Collateral Mortgage noted, "December...

Fidelity Leverages Transaction Management Skills.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Increasingly, firms that provide title related services are branching out to perform other real estate related functions on both the loan origination and servicing sides of the business. Executives at Fidelity National Financial say the...

Technology: Lenders Should Not Destroy Original Documents for 'Electronic' Loans.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... It is important to remember that while the E-sign law makes it possible for electronic mortgages, it did not change the Federal and other laws on what creates a mortgage. Carmento Bramante, Fannie Mae's director of e-commerce, told the...

Default, Prepayment Factors Are Key to Risk-Free Pricing.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... While there are a number of definitions of risk-based pricing, the one San Francisco's Mortgage Information Corp. uses is "the right product and price at the right place and time." The right price, said Kyle G. Lundstedt, vice president of...

Technology: Microsoft Veterans Launch "E-Payment" Platform.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... CheckSpace, a provider of "ePayment" capabilities for small businesses and their service partners, is offering financial companies the opportunity to brand its electronic invoice and payment system in their own name. CheckSpace recently...

Dexma Offers Portfolio Protection.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Dexma, a mortgage lending application service provider here, is offering a Web-based refinancing tool designed to increase lending capacity by accelerating the refinancing process. The Dexma Portfolio Protector gives lenders extra capacity...

Interlinq Restructuring Includes Ouster of Its CEO.(Jiri Nechleba stepping down at Interlinq Software)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Interlinq Software Corp., facing decreased revenue and increased losses, is hoping a restructuring will return it to a positive cash flow and profitability As part of that restructuring, its well-known president and CEO Jiri Nechleba is...

Technology: Citigroup Launches New Investor Reporting Site.(structured finance deals)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 1, 2001... Citigroup has launched a new website (www.sf.citidirect.com) that will allow investors to download bond and collateral performance information on structured finance deals. The Citibank site focuses on investor reporting for structured...

Old Republic Network Adopts ORTRIS Name.(Old Republic Title Residential Information Services)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Old Republic National Title Insurance Company announced that, effective immediately, Old Republic Network will be renamed Old Republic Title, Residential Information Services. ORTRIS is a division of Old Republic National Title Insurance...

Subservicing Special Report.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... The subservicing industry continues to grow, as more and more mortgage lenders opt to outsource loan administration while continuing to own and control the ongoing relationship with home loan borrowers. The industry is on a fast track to even...

Tidalwave Buys Seasons Mortgage Servicing Platform.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Tidalwave Holdings here has acquired the assets of Seasons Mortgage Group, Richmond, Va., including its servicing operation and subservicing contracts on $100 million of residential loans. The SMG servicing platform managed loan...

Cenlar Will Give Its Clients Direct Access to Loan Data and Reports.(subservicing system)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Cenlar FSB has entered into the second phase of developing its private label subservicing system for its clients. Phase two, expected to be completed by the third quarter of this year, will give clients the ability to "do direct inquiries...

Ocwen Reaches $20 Billion Portfolio Mark With More Room To Grow.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Ocwen Financial Corporation's portfolio of servicing rights recently hit $20 billion of non-conforming mortgages, and company president Ron Faris says there is plenty of room for further growth. And the $20 billion portfolio makes Ocwen...

Midwest Hits $2.75 B.(Midwest Loan Services)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Midwest Loan Services now subservices $2.75 billion in loans and expects to keep growing, the company announced last month. The performance of Midwest Loan Services helped University Bancorp, which owns 80% of Midwest, return to...

Wendover Sees Subservicing as Extension of the Client's Shop.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Wendover Financial Services here is known as a specialist in product niches such as reverse mortgage loans, but the president sees the company's focus a little differently. He believes the company's approach to subservicing is its real...

EDS Aims To Become the Largest Loan Servicing Vendor in Europe.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Electronic Data Systems, Plano, Texas, has reported that its new joint venture with United Kingdom lender Abbey National has officially gotten underway, positioning it to become the largest provider of mortgage services in Europe. The...

Recent Servicing-related sale transactions.(Brief Article)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2001... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Buyer Seller Tidalwave Holdings Seasons Mortgage Group Ocwen Financial Metropolitan Mortgage First Union Bancorp Wachovia Bank NetBank Inc. ...

Top 50 servicers at March 31, 2001.(Brief Article)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2001... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rank Organization Name, Location 1 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Des Moines, IA 2 Chase Manhattan Mortgage, Edison, NJ 3 Bank of America Mortgage, Charlotte, NC 4 Washington...

Servicing People.(personnel changes)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Alabama Birmingham- SouthTrust Mortgage Corp. has announced the appointment of Mike Flynn as vice president of secondary marketing and Diane Spears as vice president of loan servicing. Mr. Flynn's primary focus will be on pricing and...