Mortgage Servicing News articles from May 2002

Mortgage Servicing News archives from May 2002

WaMu, M&A Market Quiet - for Now.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The mergers and acquisition market for mortgage banking franchises has been so quiet lately you can hear a pin drop. Not only that, but the largest buyer of all time - Washington Mutual of Seattle - is currently sitting on the sidelines,...

Ocwen and Merrill Lynch Go Global.(Ocwen Financial Corp., Merrill Lynch and Company Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Ocwen Financial Corp. has teamed up with Wall Street firm Merrill Lynch in a global partnership that matches the former's technology and servicing skills with assets the latter has around the world. "It's really a collaboration," Thomas F....

What Recession?: Residential Credit Quality Stays Strong.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... When delinquency and default statistics for late 2001 and early 2002 started to trickle in, just about everybody expected to see a rise in delinquencies and defaults on home loans. After all, foreclosure activity tends to be a lagging...

Chicago Cites Tax Problems.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Here in the nation's second largest county, local officials say that they have seen an increase in the number of mistakes made by lenders on property tax payments. Earlier this year, Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas announced that...

WAMU's Biggest 'Meals'.(Washington Mutual Inc)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... (Dollars in Millions) Name of Size of Residential Year Firm Bought Servicing Port. Bought HomeSide (1) $181,267 2002 Fleet Mortgage $143,992 2001 ...

Servicing Cost Per Loan (annualized) at 12/31/01.(Brief Article)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... (part 1 of 2) Rank Organization Name Location 1 Mortgage Investors Corporation St. Petersburg, FL 2 Bank of Hawaii Honolulu, HI 3 QMG America Oxnard, CA 4 Navy FCU...

Option One Will Open New Servicing Center in Jacksonville.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Option One Mortgage Corp., here, one of the largest subprime servicers in the U.S., plans to open a platform in Jacksonville, Fla., a city that is quickly becoming a mecca for financial service firms in search of reasonably-priced call center...

Report Brings Closure to Lomas.(Lomas Mortgage USA Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... In March, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court here put its stamp of approval on what is probably the final chapter in the bankruptcy of Lomas Mortgage USA, once the nation's largest mortgage servicer. Lomas Mortgage, a division of Lomas Financial...

Refis As a Percentage of Total Originations in 4Q 2001.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rank Organization Name Location 1 Mortgage Investors Corporation St. Petersburg, FL 2 accunetmortgage.com Monomonee Falls, WI 3 E-Loan ...

Alltel Achieves Year-End Record.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Alltel announced that it completed its 2001 year-end processing of 21.9 million mortgage loans on the Mortgage Servicing Package in just 26 hours, setting a company record for the number of loans processed in this time frame. "Daily,...

Sliding Fee Gets O.K. for MBS Transactions.(mortgage bank service)(Mortgage Bankers Association of America)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A securitization transaction with a graduated servicing fee creates a sufficient incentive for other servicers to take over the responsibilities if the original servicer defaults. Erik Lukacsko, the associate director for structured...

Data Cleansing Called Key to CRM Success.
May 1, 2002... Saying that faulty customer data costs U.S. companies billions of dollars annually, Experian is launching a new service to help companies identify and solve data-quality problems. The consulting effort, Data View, is designed to help...

The 'Digital Divide'.(MORTECH study on mortgage firms)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... The annual MORTECH study recently uncovered a growing "digital divide" between firms in the mortgage industry. Increasingly, "haves" are moving ahead with digital mortgage docs while "have nots" continue to rely on paper documentation. And...

Surge in Housing Demand Boosts Growth Prospects.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Mr. Raines is the chairman and CEO of Fannie Mae. This viewpoint is an excerpt from a speech he made at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The recession hit almost every industry hard. Except for housing. Home construction...

Mortgage Scene: There Should Be a Probe of Homestore's 'Barter Deals'.(Homestore.com Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... While the rest of the financial press pounds the Enron pavement, the mortgage and housing industry has contended with a mini-Enron of its own: the implosion of Homestore.com, the nation's largest online listing service. (It also operates a...

Speed Watch: Speeds Keep Rising, Especially for High Coupon Fannie Mae Deals.(mortgage banking industry)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Prepayment rates for most agency mortgage-backed securities rose somewhat in the March reporting period, while the speeds of seasoned 30-year Fannie Mae super-premium issues soared. Analysts at the Bear Stearns Prepayment Commentary...

Insurance Replacing Phase One Environmental Assessments.
May 1, 2002... Phase I site assessment reports are getting phased out by environmental insurance in commercial real estate lending, believes Environmental Warranty, a player in the environmental insurance arena. The company, which brokers environmental...

Rating Agencies Not Worried About Real Estate.(real estate industry statistics)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... Two rating agencies have recently released data suggesting that while commercial real estate markets are feeling the effect of a weak economy, real estate is not in for the kind of beating it took in previous recessions. Fitch Ratings...

Criimi Mae Sells Master Servicing.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... Criimi Mae Services, Criimi Mae's commercial mortgage servicing subsidiary, sold nine master and primary servicing contracts in February to an undisclosed buyer for $11.3 million in cash, including reimbursement for advances, Criimi Mae has...

Commercial Servicer: Insurance Coverage for Terrorism May Be on the Way.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... The invisible hand of the market is at work developing a market equilibrium for terrorism insurance, but it may not be up to the task in this instance due to special considerations of national security and the threat of significant economic...

Credit Counselor: Counseling Puts B&C Borrowers into Prime Quality Loans.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... Lending to a borrower with a poor credit history is always a risky business, and the risk is obvious. These borrowers are more likely to go delinquent and subsequently default on their loan than "conforming" borrowers. While the...

Debt Collection Bill Would Require Grace Period During Emergencies.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Representative Bradley Sherman, D-Calif., has introduced House Resolution 3891, which would amend the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. It would provide for grace periods when debt payments are mailed during national emergencies. Under...

Official Foresees Electronic Releases.(Navy Federal Credit Union, electronic recording system)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... In five to 10 years, electronic recordation of land-record documents will be commonplace, predicted a panelist at March's MBA technology conference. Speaking at a session on the practical value of e-mortgages, John Frey, Clerk of the...

Decade Converts Legacy Data.(Decade Systems Corp. promotes software to mortgage lenders, U.S.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Decade Systems Corp. here, a provider of integration services, is promoting Total Enterprise Data Integration for mortgage lenders. After releasing version 4.1 of TEDI last fall, the company pitched the technology to mortgage bankers at...

Hedging: Rise of Hybrid ARMs Poses Questions about Prepayments.(adjustable rate mortgages)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... In the past several years, hybrid ARMs, which are fixed for a period of three, five, seven or 10 years before resetting as a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage, have become popular with consumers who want to take advantage of a low fixed rate...

Servicers Urged to Focus on Retention.(mortgage servicers told how to retain customers)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Why can't mortgage servicers do a better job retaining their customers, asked Chuck Klein, managing director of the advisory firm of Charbonneau-Klein. Speaking at the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's National Secondary Market...

Despite Rise in Late Payments, Spain Outperforms Neighbors.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Arrears in Spain's rated mortgage-backed securities appear to have been inching upward, but overall the market has better loan performance statistics than its European neighbors, Moody's Investors Service has reported. According to...

Aussie Loans Remain Stable.(Australian residential mortgages)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Delinquency levels in Australian residential mortgages remained unchanged in the most recent performance index results available from Standard & Poor's at press time. S&P's Australian Mortgage Performance Index, which measures securitized...

Insurance & Recovery: Flood, Hazard & Disaster Special Report.(U.S.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... It has been a relatively mild spring so far. The usual stories of April flooding have been largely supplanted by worries about a summer drought. But one of the legacies of Sept. 11 is that we don't take things for granted the way we once did....

Proctor Manages Challenging Times.(services from Proctor Financial Insurance, U.S.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The events of Sept. 11 accelerated a troublesome trend for property owners last year. Insurance rates, already on the rise, are starting to skyrocket. Homeowners have not been left out of the dilemma. Nationally, homeowner's insurance...

FNIS Reports Gain in Earnings For Late Last Year.(Fidelity National Information Solutions' financial data)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... Fidelity National Information Solutions, a comprehensive source for real estate-related data, technology and services, reported net cash earnings of $3.5 million for the fourth quarter of 2001, up from $1.2 million for the fourth quarter of...

1st American Forms Provider Alliance.(First American Real Estate Information Services partners with XtraNet Lending Solutions)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... First American Real Estate Information Services, a provider of flood, title and other related services, has entered into a partnership with an application service provider that has the potential to increase First American's client base by...

NSI Celebrates 10 Years in Disaster Recovery Business.(NSI Software, U.S.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... For NSI Software, disaster recovery is a business topic that long predates the tragic events of Sept. 11. The company, which provides data replication technologies and strategies, celebrated its 10th anniversary in September. Because...

MeridianLink Teams Up with Geotrac.(releases new software, U.S.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... MeridianLink here, a provider of Internet-based credit reporting software, has released an integrated flood compliance ordering module in partnership with Geotrac, a provider of flood compliance services. Sellers of credit reports using...

Flood Meeting Heads to Louisiana.
May 1, 2002... The National Flood Insurance Program will hold its annual conference May 19 through 22 in New Orleans. The 2002 National Flood Conference will address issues related to the federal government's flood insurance program that are of concern...

FloodSource Acquires Website Firm.(Brandon Brewer, FloodSource Corp. buys LOMA/LOMR.com Web site)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... In a deal that expands its online capabilities to keep up to date with changes in flood zones, FloodSource Corp. here has acquired LOMA/LOMR.com from Flood Hazard Determination Inc., Seattle. LOMA stands for Letter of Map Amendment and...

FNC Gets a Flood Services Partner.(FNC Inc. links with Federal Flood Certification Corp.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... FNC Inc. here is partnering with Federal Flood Certification Corp. to provide FNC customers with direct access to flood insurance services and products. Users of FNC's Collateral Management System will be able to quickly and...

Servicing Prices Stop Sliding.(residential mortages)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The secondary market for residential servicing rights appears to be firming somewhat, but that's hardly cause for celebration. According to investment bankers interviewed by Mortgage Servicing News in recent weeks, the "flow" market is...

People.(personnel changes)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... CALIFORNIA Calabasas- John W. Stewart has been appointed as senior vice president of strategic business development at Countrywide Home Loans Inc. He will be responsible for national revenue sharing initiatives and developing the...

$40B in Bulk, Flow Deals Coming.(mortgages)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 17, 2002... The market for "flow" servicing packages may be a bit weak, but the "bulk" market is showing signs of life once again. As Mortgage Servicing News went to press this month, deals involving at least $40 billion in residential receivables...

Rate Dip Refuels Refis.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... So far, it's nothing compared to the frenzy of last year. Nor has it reached the high points seen in 1998. But when 30-year mortgage rates dipped below the 7.00% level in mid-April, the phones started ringing off the hooks again. It now...

National City Hits $100B.(loan administration milestone at National City Mortgage)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 17, 2002... The plaques are still up on the wall at National City Mortgage's offices that commemorate a major loan administration milestone. In 1992, the company struck the $10 billion mark. Ten years later, the company has reached a new milestone. In...

Top 5 Servicers Cross 40% Mark.(mortgage bank rankings)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... The top five residential servicers now control almost 41% of all housing receivables in the U.S. The findings, based on quarterly survey data compiled by this newspaper and the Quarterly Data Report, show that the servicing side of the...

Consolidation: Combined mkt. Shares of Top Players.
May 17, 2002... (a comparison) Group Market Share Period Top 5 40.65 % 1Q 2002 Top 5 37.00 % 4Q 2001 Top 5 34.37 % 1Q 2001 Top 5 28.22 % 1Q 2000 Top 5 15.38 % ...

Borrowers Upset By Poor Service.(Mobius Management Systems Inc. survey results)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... One hundred thirty out of 138 mortgage customers said that they would switch banks if phone customer service was consistently bad, according to a recent online poll by Mobius Management Systems Inc., provider of Web-based software for...

Top Servicing Gainers at March 31, 2002.(mortgage institutions ranked)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 17, 2002... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rank Organization Name, Location 1 Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, Ocala, FL 2 Washington Mutual, Seattle, WA 3 Fifth Third Bank, Cincinnati, OH 4 Graystone Mortgage...

Servicing Accounts for Big Chunk of Fee Income.(new non-interest revenue now added to call reports)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 17, 2002... A report released by the FDIC says that new detail from bank call reports sheds light on their loan servicing income and other sources of fee income. For nearly 25 years, non-interest income has been growing as a share of banks' operating...

Big sources of non-interest income for the banking industry.
May 17, 2002... Securitization: $16.3 Billion Servicing Fees: $11.6 Billion Investment Banking: $9.1 Billion Copyright c 2002 Thomson Media. All Rights Reserved.

Former HomeSide Exec Joins Alliance.(Blake Wilson appointed chief financial officer of Alliance Mortgage)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 17, 2002... Alliance Mortgage here has hired former HomeSide Lending executive Blake Wilson as its chief financial officer. Mr. Wilson was one of three top mortgage executives let go by HomeSide last fall when its parent company wrote down the value...

Feds Target B&C Firms.(discriminatory mortgages)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... Fair lending attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice may be eyeing subprime lenders that have high foreclosure rates in minority neighborhoods. High concentrations of subprime lending in minority neighborhoods "causes us to focus more...

CA Commercial Loans Hit Performance Record.(California Mortgage Bankers Association survey report)(Brief Article)(Polling Data)(Statistical Data Included)
May 17, 2002... The California Mortgage Bankers Association reports that 99.97% of commercial real estate loans serviced by mortgage bankers that participate in its quarterly survey continue to be performing. That means that only 0.03% of California...

Freddie Adds Servicing Offer.(Freddie Mac and Cenlar Federal Saving Bank service contract)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... Freddie Mac and Cenlar FSB have formed a new private-label servicing option for members of America's Community Bankers that allows them to originate mortgages without the expense of a servicing infrastructure. The arrangement includes...

Consumers Are Slow to Pay Mortgage Bills Online.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... While there are a number of vendors who are now making technology available to mortgage servicers who want to allow their borrowers to pay online, consumer acceptance has not been strong enough to get the tools deployed. According to a...

Time for a Small Servicer?(mortgage servicers)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... At the recent mortgage servicing asset conference in Arlington, Va., sponsored by Executive Enterprise Institute, we heard an interesting idea whose time may have come. MBA chief economist Douglas Duncan, noting the technology changes that have...

Risk-Based Assessments Can Be Fair to Banks.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... Mr. Powell, chairman of the FDIC, advocated risk-based deposit insurance premiums in a recent speech made in North Carolina. This is an excerpt of his remarks. First, there is the question of our fund structure. We have two deposit...

Mortgage Scene: Some of the Best Mortgage Firms Keep Quiet About Their Success.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... A day doesn't go by at the mortgage division of Thomson Financial Media (the publisher of this journal) where some firm or their hyperkinetic public relations staff don't come clamoring for attention - as in: "Please write about us, please,...

Speed Watch: Rate Rise in March Puts a Damper on April Prepayment Activity.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 17, 2002... Prepayment rates for most agency mortgage-backed securities slowed in the April reporting period, reflecting the rise in mortgage interest rates that occurred in March. The largest decline came in vintage 2000 Fannie Mae 7.0s, which fell...

Credit Counselor: Online Bill Payment Attracts Low Risk Consumers.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 17, 2002... With the continuing improvement of online technology and ease of use, more and more people are also getting comfortable with paying their bills, including mortgages, online. In a December 2001 online poll of 2,201 customers, 30% said that...

Merrill CMBS Deal Gets a Downgrade.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 17, 2002... Rating agency Standard & Poor's has lowered its rating on class G of Merrill Lynch Mortgage Investors Inc.'s mortgage pass-through certificate series 1996-C2, to triple-C, from single-B, and removed it from CreditWatch with negative...

Hedging: Hedge Expert: MSRs Perform Differently from IO Strips.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... Some of the best minds in the mortgage business gathered in Arlington, Va. recently to talk about mortgage servicing rights at the Executive Enterprise Institute mortgage servicing asset conference. After a year which saw $1 trillion of...

'Modifiable Mortgage' Pits Servicers Against Originators.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... The modifiable mortgage product that is being offered by both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could revolutionize the way refi booms play out. There is at least one originator, Todd White, senior vice president, loan production manager, Arvest...

Portfolio Retention: Principal Offers Online Refinancing.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... Principal Residential Mortgage here has added enhancements to its online service to refinance the loans of existing customers. The service is offered through the Principal Residential Mortgage Home Loan Service Center, located at...

Commercial Servicer: Mild Recession Does Little Damage To CMBS Loans.(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)(Statistical Data Included)
May 17, 2002... As the current recession - or recessionlet, seeing that it is one of the mildest in recent years - runs through its course, the inevitable increase in delinquency rates is occurring. Although it is not clear whether delinquency rates have...

Commercial: Roundup: Property Markets Expected to Bounce Back in '03.(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)(Statistical Data Included)
May 17, 2002... The U.S. commercial real estate market will rebound in 2003 after bottoming out later this year, according to Moody's Investors Service. The credit rating agency's property cycle index - which tracks the U.S. commercial real estate cycle...

[0] Consolidation: Combined mkt. Shares of Top Players.(Brief Article)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
May 17, 2002... (a comparison) Group Market Share Period Top 10 53.74 % 1Q 2002 Top 10 49.60 % 4Q 2001 Top 10 48.59 % 1Q 2001 Top 10 41.76 % 1Q 2000 Top 10 24.95 % ...

Technology: Utah Firm Unveils Web-based Escrow Management.(Oversight International launched Digital Escrow Services Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... Oversight International, a multibusiness holding company, has launched Digital Escrow Services Inc., an Internet- based process for the administration of loan escrow transactions for residential mortgage servicing. The company says its...

AllRegs Adds Three More States.(Arizona, Tennessee, Oklahoma added to library of state mortgage compliance titles)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... AllRegs, an electronic publisher of residential mortgage underwriting guidelines, laws, regulations and forms, has added Arizona, Oklahoma, and Tennessee to its library of state mortgage compliance titles. The library is authored by the...

Special Report: Flood, Hazard & Disaster.(the insurance industry in times of disaster)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... It has been a relatively mild spring so far. The usual stories of April flooding have been largely supplanted by worries about a summer drought. But one of the legacies of Sept. 11 is that we don't take things for granted the way we once did....

Consumer Advocates Urge Borrowers to Track Their Credit Scores.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 17, 2002... With California passing its credit score disclosure law last year, and then Fair, Isaac allowing borrowers in other states as well to have access to see their credit scores, there has also come a greater public awareness about credit scores...

Special Report: Defaults & Mitigation.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... The old saying is that the three percent of your loans that are past due account for one third of your servicing costs. The industry's worst nightmare is that bad loans will become a money hole, sucking up resources that could be used to...

Outsource Firm Helps Attorneys Minimize Foreclosure Ad Costs.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... When a loan goes into foreclosure, lenders typically rely on an attorney to guide the process. But the attorneys, in turn, often outsource some of their work to firms that specialize in different aspects of foreclosure work. RSVP is one...

C-BASS Completes $270mm Deal.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
May 17, 2002... C-BASS, a specialist in servicing and securitizing credit-sensitive residential mortgages, has closed a transaction backed by approximately $270 million of residential mortgage collateral. Greenwich Capital Markets underwrote the...

Mobile Home Lender Predicts Better Future.(financial data for Conseco Inc., Conseco Finance)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... The chairman and chief executive of Conseco Inc. here said even though it lost $96.9 million in the first quarter, the company's 2002 liquidity issues are behind it. Gary Wendt made the statement in the latest "New Conseco Memo."...

Weiss: Bank Chargeoffs Hit New Record Last Year.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... Chargeoffs at commercial banks and thrifts hit a record last year, even as strong fee revenue from mortgage banking helped to limit the damage to bank balance sheets, according to an independent rating company here. The U.S. banking...

Chargeoffs at U.S. Banks.(Brief Article)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
May 17, 2002... 2001: $38.8 billion 2000: $25.1 billion 1999: $21.5 billion 1998: $22.2 billion 1997: $20.0 billion Source: Weiss Ratings Copyright c 2002 Thomson Media. All Rights Reserved.

Title Industry Paid $350 MM in claims.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... In an effort to show that its product does have value to borrowers and mortgage lenders, the American Land Title Association said the industry paid $350 million in claims during 2000. The results were calculated from an industry survey...

Chase Agrees to Modify Problem Loans.(Chase Manhattan Mortgage Corp.)(Brief Article)(Company Profile)
May 17, 2002... Chase Manhattan Mortgage Corp., named in a suit last year for purchasing mortgages of homes with allegedly inflated appraisal values, is beginning a loan modification program for approximately 250 to 300 of its borrowers in the Poconos. ...

Compliance Docs Are Sometimes Used Against Mortgage Companies.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... Seemingly contrary to the legal precept that a person cannot be made to testify against himself in a court of law, a growing number of lenders are finding that documents prepared to meet regulatory requirements are being used against them in...

Upland to Refund Some Legal Fees.(Upland Mortgage to settle allegations that it charged fees without providing legal services)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... Upland Mortgage will return approximately $221,000 to more than 1,400 Pennsylvania consumers to settle allegations that the company charged an "attorney review fee" without providing actual legal services, according to the Pennsylvania...

HomEq Says Remote Workforce Is a Hiring Advantage.(HomEq Servicing Corp.)(Brief Article)(Company Profile)
May 17, 2002... HomEq Servicing Corp. isn't afraid to let its loss mitigation employees work at home. In fact, the company closed its Tulsa, Okla., loss mitigation office and turned the entire staff into remote employees. The results: improved performance...

Moodys: Outlook is Steady for Consumer Finance.(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
May 17, 2002... In another indication that the economic slowdown is unlikely to do much damage to credit quality, Moody's Investors Service says that the outlook for consumer finance "will remain stable for 2002." The rating agency said that its forecast...

New S&P Model Predicts Loss Severity.(Standard and Poor's Corp.)(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... Standard & Poor's plans to launch a "loss severity scoring model" by the end of this year that will be used in rating residential mortgage-backed securities. The rating agency said its goal is to make the loss severity component of an MBS...

Report Suggests Bias in CA Lending Patterns.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... Reports showing that California has dominated the national chart of cities with the highest disparity ratios of subprime refinancing between lower-income whites and upper-income Hispanics and African-Americans borrowers have raised concerns...

VA Yet to Decide Fate of REO Sales.(Brief Article)
May 17, 2002... It is going to take a little longer before the Department of Veteran Affairs announces a decision on whether it will privatize the management and sales of its real estate owned or to keep the operation in-house. VA officials planned to...