Mortgage Servicing News articles from March 2001

Mortgage Servicing News archives from March 2001

Lenders Struggle to Increase Retention as Refis Soar.(mortgage refinancing boom)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... The 30-year mortgage rate fell nearly 100 basis points between early November and mid- February, sparking a refinancing boom that threatens to impair the value of many servicing portfolios and puts to the test efforts to improve retention. ...

Fines Worry FHA Lenders.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Mortgage servicers are taking issue with the Department of Housing and Urban Development over its loss mitigation rating system and the possibility that servicers could face severe fines for low ratings. The first results from the rating...

Commercial Servicing Volume Grows.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... Nearly 78% of third-party commercial mortgage servicers reported increases in commercial/multifamily mortgage servicing volume in 2000, according to an annual survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBA). The survey,...

Prepayment rates (annualized) of top 20 servicers at 12/31/00.(Brief Article)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... (Dollars in Millions) Serv Serv Vol Pre-payment Rank Organization Name 12/31/00 Rate 1 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Des Moines, IA $452,569 na 2 Chase Manhattan Mortgage, Edison,...

FNMA 30-Year FRM Prepayment report.(Federal National Mortgage Association)(Fixed-Rate Mortgage)(Brief Article)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... Coupon WAM WAC FACTOR Jan01 Dec00 6.50 2029 7.04 .927 5.3 5.0 6.50 2028 7.01 .859 6.9 6.9 7.00 2030 7.74 .988 7.8 2.5 7.00 2029 7.60 .929 9.9 6.4 7.50 2030...

Lenders Say Servicing-Release Option Would Benefit MPF.(Mortgage Partnership Finance)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... The Chicago Federal Home Loan Bank's Mortgage Partnership Finance program posted an impressive 760% growth rate last year, but some lenders say they want the option to sell loans into the program and release the servicing rights and credit...

WaMu To Consolidate Five Servicing Platforms Into Two.(Washington Mutual Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Washington Mutual recently completed its acquisition of PNC Mortgage and is on the verge of completing its deal to buy Bank United. Those deals give the West Coast thrift over $300 billion in servicing rights and five servicing platforms. ...

Refinancing Mania.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Runoff, churning, impairment. It's that time of the mortgage lending cycle again. With rates hitting their low point in almost two years, a large volume of loans that are outstanding have become eligible to refinance, saving homeowners...

Point of View: Greenspan Urges Fiscal Discipline.(Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan is on center stage these days as a result of the Fed's decision to cut short term interest rates. His recent testimony before the Senate Budget Committee might give us some idea about whether or...

Mortgage Scene: Framing the GSE Debate in the New Bush Administration.
March 1, 2001... Is the new Bush Administration "pro" Fannie and Freddie or is it "anti" GSE? Good question. Unfortunately, if you're trying to read the early tea leaves the jury is still out, even though Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill hinted in a recent...

Speed Watch: Fannie and Ginnie Feel Big Prepayment Spike Earlier Than Expected.(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... A big prepayment spike occurred in January for Fannie Mae and Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities, a month ahead of analysts' expectations. Speeds of vintage 1999 and 2000 Fannie Mae 7.5s, 8.0s, and 8.5s surged by 100%-225% in the...

CBC Buys GE's Flood Business.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... CBC Companies, owner and manager of combined consumer credit and flood zone determination databases, has announced its purchase of GE Capital Flood Services. With this addition, CBC Companies will become one of the nation's largest...

Regulatory Watch: Senator Gramm Emerges as Key Player in Mortgage Policy Debates.
March 1, 2001... Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, is asserting himself as a key voice on policy issues of interest to mortgage lenders. For instance, Senator Gramm has been outspoken player in debates about accounting...

GNMA Has Interest in Risk Sharing.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... The Government National Mortgage Association is once again considering a private/public risk sharing arrangement on certain high loan-to-value ratio mortgages, industry officials said last week. The GNMA "Choice" concept, as it is known,...

Tax Burden Justifies Industry's Influence.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... The Mortgage Bankers Association of America wants a prominent seat at the national policy table. Although the organization has been operating without an executive vice president for months, its elected leader, Andrew Woodward, chairman...

Hedging: 'Implied' Prepayment Risk Puts a Wrinkle into Servicing Values.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Most prepayment models are designed to estimate interest rate risk by looking at historical data. But there is one type of model that is more concerned with the future than the past. Andrew Davidson & Co. has released its new Implied...

Trustcorp Mortgage Sells $1 Billion from Its Servicing Portfolio.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Trustcorp Mortgage Company, a subsidiary of 1st Source Corporation, has agreed to sell servicing rights on a $1 billion mortgage portfolio in a move that will generate about $6 million in net revenue for the company. Christopher Murphy,...

Pete Wissinger.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Pete Wissinger, Mr. Wissinger, president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Des Moines, Iowa, has now also been named chief executive officer of the company, which has $453 billion of mortgage receivables and is the nation's largest mortgage...

Fla. Lender Seeks Servicing Presence.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Tidalwave Holdings Inc. here hopes to purchase a mortgage company which has Fannie Mae and/or Freddie Mac approvals. The company already operates First American Mortgage Securities Inc. and MobileHomeTrader.com. "We are pleased with...

Credit Counselor: Rising Foreclosures and Bankruptcies Mean More Business for Lawyers.
March 1, 2001... With foreclosures on the rise, law firms that specialize in the area are seeing business booming. "Over the last two to three years, the size of our bankruptcy department has as much as tripled," said Shell L. Rutledge, a partner with the...

Collection: Moody's Sees Delinquencies Rising on Home Equity Loan Deals.(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... The credit quality of home equity loans in securities transactions deteriorated moderately during the third quarter of last year, according to Moody's Investors Service, adding to concern about credit quality problems across the mortgage...

SNAPSHOT: Loan Problems Increased Across The Mortgage Spectrum Last Year.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Moody's HEL Index: 5.14% subprime serious delinquencies at 3Q `00, up 33 basis points. MBA Survey: 4.04% of residential mortgages were at least 30 days late in the 4th Q, up 22 basis points. MIC: The year 2000 vintage of...

B&C Servicing: Franklin Credit Uses Servicing to Manage Credit Risk.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Franklin Credit Management Corp. here, a buyer of subprime loans across the credit spectrum, employs flexible underwriting standards that allow it to accept loans that might not meet the underwriting criteria of many buyers. That means...

Rhonda B. Johnson.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... HomeGold Financial Inc., Greenville S.C., has named Ms. Johnson executive vice president and chief financial officer. She will oversee all accounting, corporate finance, financial planning and treasury functions at the company, which...

Despite Strong Market, Slowdown Causes Concern about CMBS Quality.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... The volume of commercial mortgage-backed securities issued this year should be about 20% higher than last year's volume, fueled largely by an increase in overseas deals, according to Moody's Investors Service. But despite that rosy...

Top Commercial servicers at Sept. 30, 2000.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rank Organization Name 1 GMAC Commercial Mortgage, Horsham, PA 2 First Union Securities, Charlotte, NC 3 ORIX Real Estate Capital Markets, LLC, Dallas, TX 4 BNY Asset Solutions...

Delinquencies Unchanged in CA.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... The California Mortgage Bankers Association reports that 99.8% of commercial real estate loans in California are either current or only one payment behind. The CMBA's survey of 20 commercial mortgage servicers found that just .2% of loans...

Silicon Valley Market Cooling Off.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... The dot-com weeding out process has caused rents to go down a bit in the San Francisco Bay Area due to an increasing availability of office space, according to participants in a recent conference call - "The San Francisco Bay Area's office...

Commercial Service: Retail Properties Are a Source of Concern for CMBS Investors.
March 1, 2001... On the heels of news about a sharp decline in consumer confidence in January-Reuters reports that the monthly index of consumer confidence slid from 128.6 in December to 114.4 in January-Standard & Poor's has expressed concerns about the...

CapMark Gets Top Commercial Servicer Ratings.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... CapMark Services here has received Fitch's top ratings as a master servicer and primary servicer for loans backing commercial mortgage-backed securities. CapMark's master servicer rating was upgraded to `CMS1' from a "2" rating and its...

CapMark Will Master Service Morgan Deal.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... CapMark Services, one of the nation's largest third-party commercial mortgage servicers, has been selected as master servicer on the Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Capital Trust 2001-PPM securities transaction. The commercial mortgage-backed...

Midland Wins CMBS Servicing.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Midland Loan Services, division of PNC Real Estate Finance, has been selected as master servicer for a $438.8 million commercial mortgage-backed securities transaction. Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp. is the lead manager on...

Technology: Cross-Selling Called Essential to Citigroup's Growth Plans.
March 1, 2001... To achieve the annual 15% return on investment goal that Citigroup has set for its business units, technology must be employed to exploit cross-selling opportunities, says Chuck Elgin, chief information officer at the Citigroup Real Estate...

Equifax and FICO Serve Consumers.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Equifax Inc. has forged a multi-year agreement with San Rafael, Calif.-based Fair, Isaac and Co. to develop credit products and services targeted at consumers. The companies have planned an online credit score service for March that will...

Fiserv Blends Outsourcing and Licensing to Attract a New Client.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Fiserv announced recently that two lenders have converted to the Fiserv MortgageServ platform for automation of loan administration. One of the new clients is Temple-Inland Mortgage Corporation, Austin, Texas. Temple-Inland is a...

MI Portal Posts Strong Traffic.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... eMagic.com, the portal that was started by Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. here, has surpassed its own first year transaction goals, company officials said. When MGIC created eMagic, its goal was to more than double the 14,000...

Technology: Troy Group Creates an Electronic Lock Box Service.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Troy Group has announced that its subsidiary, Troy Financial Services, has added electronic lock box processing to its suite of electronic payment services. Troy entered the market with an online bill payment product offering late last...

Website Offers Attack Forum.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Two nonprofit groups have launched a Web-based attack on the "predatory lending" practices of Citigroup's Associates First Capital unit - and Citigroup is defending itself by pointing to anti- predatory measures detailed on its own website....

Online Exchange Reports Growth.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... IMX today announced that both liquidity and trading volume reached all-time highs on the IMX Exchange in January. IMX claims to be the largest loan trading network for mortgage brokers and lenders. Liquidity on IMX Exchange for January...

Technology: MERS Passes Three Million Mark as Daily Volume Gets a Boost.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... The electronic registry for tracking ownership of mortgage loans and servicing rights has registered more than three million loans and continues to pick up volume. In fact, MERS president and CEO R.K. Arnold said the system is currently...

David B. Espenschied.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Mr. Espenschied has been named first senior vice president and manager of Internet banking for Sanwa Bank of California, Los Angeles. Mr. Espenschied joins Sanwa from Countrywide Home Loans Inc., Calabasas, Calif., where he served as chief...

Equifax Partnership Offers Leads.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Lead generator Data Warehouse Corp. and Atlanta-based credit reporting agency Equifax have signed an agreement that provides credit-qualified leads to mortgage originators who offer firm offers of credit. Under the agreement, Data...

Clean Data is a Key Component of Automated Value Estimates.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Case Shiller Weiss is not the only firm that claims to have the largest, or at least one of the largest, property record databases in the country. But Terry Loebs, a vice president with the firm, says size is not the only thing about the...

Appraisal.com Finds More Online Partners.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Appraisal.com, a provider of real estate data over the Internet, has signed agreements to offer consumer versions of its Nationwide Appraisal Network on two real estate portal sites. The Appraisal.com Nationwide Appraisal Network gives...

New Product Insures Automated Value Assessments.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Integrated Loan Services here has introduced a product that provides lenders with insurance on the automated valuation estimates they use to close home equity loans. Called ACA ValueGuard (for automated collateral assessment), the product...

Trade Group Working to Help Lenders Order Appraisals from Website.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... With AVMs changing expectations about how quickly lenders should get an assessment of a property's value, traditional appraisers are working to speed up their work as well. The Appraisal Institute is partnering with Charter One Financial,...

ORN Offers New AVM Coverage.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Old Republic National Title Insurance Company, through its Old Republic Network residential information services division, introduced a new automated valuation model product late last year. ORN's statistical AVM provides customers an...

Principal Residential now using REALTrans For Vender Management.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Ocwen Financial Corp. has announced that Principal Residential Mortgage, Des Moines, Iowa, is the latest lender to pick the OTX REALTrans platform to automate management of vendor relationships. The Web-based REALTrans system offers...

New Internet Features Include Automated Valuations, Appraisals.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Ocwen Realty Advisors now is offering vendor management services in addition to other collateral risk management products such as appraisals, broker price opinions, and automated valuation modeling through its recently launched website,...

Ocwen Agrees to Help Jamaican Lender.
March 1, 2001... Ocwen Financial Corp. has agreed to help the Jamaica's Financial Sector Adjustment Co. resolve or liquidate approximately $1 billion in nonperforming assets, a large percentage of which are real estate secured. Ocwen reported that it...

Ocwen Adds $2.4 Billion to Portfolio.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Ocwen Financial Corp. has purchased $2.4 billion in servicing rights from two companies in recent deals, bringing its servicing portfolio to almost $14 billion. Ocwen first acquired $1.3 billion in servicing rights in high loan-to-value...

New Century Deal Puts Fairbanks at $15.8 Billion.
March 1, 2001... Subprime lender New Century Financial, Irvine, Calif., is outsourcing its $6 billion servicing portfolio to Fairbanks Capital here, a deal that makes Fairbanks the largest subprime subservicer in the nation. The agreement takes New...

America's Senior Adds Servicing Unit.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... America's Senior Financial Service has added a mortgage servicing platform to its growing list of business units. Mr. Frank Donahue, formerly president of Private Money Mortgage, has joined Jupiter Mortgage, America's Senior Financial...

Top conventional subservicers at 12/31/00.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rank Organization Name 1 Dovenmuehle Mortgage (E), Schaumburg, IL 2 First Union Mortgage, Charlotte, NC 3 Cenlar, Ewing, NJ 4 Aurora Loan Services, Inc., Aurora, CO 5 GMAC...

Navy Federal Credit Union Tops $9 Billion in Servicing.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Navy Federal Credit Union was servicing over $9 billion in first mortgage loans at the end of last year, giving it one of the largest portfolios among credit unions. Unlike many credit unions that have chosen to sell servicing rights,...

SWBC Teams Up with Asset Liability Management Firm.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Southwest Business Corporation has acquired an equity position in Objective Advisors, a privately owned corporation specializing in asset liability management and investment advisory services for financial institutions. Objective Advisors...

Some Attorneys Say Fees Have Not Kept Pace with Rising Costs.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... With delinquency rates creeping upward, business is poised to pick up for attorneys who help lenders resolve loan defaults. But some attorneys in the industry say that's a mixed blessing. The fees attorneys can charge lenders are...

Top servicers at Dec. 31, 2000.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name 1 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage (1, Des Moines, IA 2 Chase Manhattan Mortgage (E), Edison, NJ 3 Bank of America Mortgage, Charlotte, NC 4 Countrywide Home...

Lenders See Losses Pile Up in the Wake of Georgia `Straw Buyer' Scam.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 1, 2001... A U.S. district court here has sentenced a career felon to nine years in Federal prison for directing a fraud scheme that involved purchases of upscale homes in Stone Mountain using "straw" buyers. Working with two commercial bankers and...

CitiFinancial Changes IMC Servicing Policy.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... CitiFinancial Mortgage Company, which services the IMC Home Loan Equity Trusts, has provided investors with an update regarding the calculation and reporting of unrecoverable delinquency advances. The servicing agreement governing the...

Thrifts Held Loans, ACB Survey Shows.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... A survey by America's Community Bankers shows that thrifts and savings banks retained most of their loan production last year due to rising interest rates. But what little they did sell ended up mostly in the hands of private conduits and...

Servicing People.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Alabama Birmingham- SouthTrust Mortgage Corp. has announced two new promotions. Jan Turley has been named as senior vice president and director of loan servicing and Vanessa Mencer has been appointed as assistant vice president of loan...