Mortgage Servicing News articles from November 2005

Mortgage Servicing News archives from November 2005

Servicing Profits Return as Rates Rise.
November 1, 2005... Washington -- Last year, gravity pulled the industry's profitability back toward earth after a stratospherically successful 2003, but servicing rights helped many lenders weather the fall to some extent. While servicing profits fell 50%...

GM's Woes May Force Possible Sale of GMAC.(General Motors Corp., General Motors Acceptance Corp.)
November 1, 2005... New York -- Cash-strapped General Motors is exploring a partial sale of General Motors Acceptance Corp., which controls the nation's seventh-largest mortgage banking franchise. As Mortgage Servicing News went to press this month, GM...

New Products Stretch Systems.(Fiserv Lending Solutions offers a new loan product)
November 1, 2005... South Bend, IN -- The days of servicing different loan types on different platforms may be going away, and companies like Fiserv are helping to make that possible. Ever cost conscious, some big lenders have started to mix loan types on one...

FHA: Loss Mit Claims Rising.(Federal Housing Administration)
November 1, 2005... Washington -- The Federal Housing Administration is paying loss mitigation claims on 90,000 delinquent loans so the borrowers have a chance to remain in the homes and resume their regular monthly mortgage payments again. The FHA is paying...

MSRs Staging Big Comeback.
November 1, 2005... New York -- Higher rates may be bad news for the banking industry at large, but at least they can take some consolation in the performance of their mortgage subsidiaries. Among firms reporting third-quarter results before MSN's deadline,...

Lowest Delinquency Rates - Based on Total Past Dues.(Illustration)
November 1, 2005... (Based on Number of Loans Serviced) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 Union Bank of California San Diego, CA 2 AmSouth Mortgage Birmingham, AL 3 Capitol FS &...

CSFB Completes Acquisition of Select Portfolio Servicing.(PMI Group Inc. sold its stock of SPS Holding Corp. to Credit Suisse First Boston L.L.C.)
November 1, 2005... Walnut Creek, CA -- The PMI Group here has completed the sale of all of its outstanding stock of SPS Holding Corp., parent of Select Portfolio Servicing, to Credit Suisse First Boston. Under terms of the deal, PMI received an initial cash...

Default Risk Rises Slightly.
November 1, 2005... Ann Arbor, MI -- The UFA Default Risk Index for the summer of 2005 edged up slightly but remained below a historical average, suggesting that the risk of default on newly originated, nonprime mortgage loans remains fairly stable. ...

S&P Launches New MBS Model.(Standard & Poor's Corp. released interest rate evaluator for residential mortgage-backed securities)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... New York -- Standard & Poor's has released SPIRE, a proprietary cash-flow modeling system for residential mortgage-backed securities. SPIRE (Standard & Poor's Interest Rate Evaluator) provides access to the same tools used by S&P analysts...

Countrywide Officially Surpasses $1 Trillion Mark.
November 1, 2005... Calabasas, CA -- For years, it seemed likely that someday, some firm would someday grow a mortgage servicing portfolio to $1 trillion. But until recent months, few expected it to happen this year. Now, Countrywide Financial Corp., the...

Rising Rates Boost MSRs.
November 1, 2005... At the end of the third quarter, the prevailing rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages was about 50 basis points higher than it was at the beginning of the quarter. That's welcome news for loan servicing managers, who have probably tired of...

Communication Is Key Skill For Success in Field Services.
November 1, 2005... Mr. Klein is CEO of Safeguard Properties Inc., a field service provider based near Cleveland. When a mortgage loan servicer becomes responsible for the condition of an asset the company has loaned money against, it depends on field...

E-Mortgages are the Future! Yeah, Right!
November 1, 2005... Online lending is booming and pretty soon all that paper jammed into the mortgage application packet is going to be a thing of the past. Yes, electronic mortgages are here to stay and consumers - as well as lenders - are taking to e-mortgages...

Rising Rates Finally Slow Down Prepay Speeds.
November 1, 2005... The speeds of 30-year fixed-rate agency mortgage-backed securities dropped 20% in the September reporting period after rising or holding steady in August. The slowdown was attributable to higher mortgage rates, fewer business days, and the...

Analyst Sees Little Risk for Fannie Mae.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... New York -- A.G. Edwards & Sons analyst Matthew Park said his company is maintaining its buy rating, despite recent controversies and uncertainty, because Fannie Mae is expected to continue playing a value-added role in the large and...

Foreclosures Drop, But Delinquencies Hold Steady.
November 1, 2005... Washington -- Lenders reported a substantial decline in the foreclosure rate for the second quarter, even as lenders saw a slight increase in overall delinquencies from the first quarter. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that the...

Lehman CMBS Deal Downgraded.
November 1, 2005... New York -- Two classes from Lehman Brothers floating-rate commercial mortgage trust 2002-LLF C3 have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings. Class L was downgraded from BBB-minus to BB-plus, and class M was downgraded from BB-minus to B-plus....

Irwin Scales Back It's MSR Exposure.
November 1, 2005... For most lenders, the third quarter of this year was a good one in terms of mortgage servicing valuations. But after several years of heavy amortization and impairment expense, not everyone is happy about the idea of having mortgage servicing...

Fitch Reaffirms Irwin's HE Ratings.(Irwin Home Equity Corp.)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... New York -- Fitch Ratings has affirmed the primary servicer rating of Irwin Home Equity Corp. for the servicing of home-equity lines of credit and high loan-to-value ratio loans. Fitch said the "RPS2" ratings are based on Irwin's...

Freddie To Update Loan Servicing Performance Profiles.(Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... McLean, VA -- Freddie Mac here plans to introduce several changes to its servicer performance profiles next year, incorporating new aspects of servicing, such as property management and disposition, into reviews. Bill Merrill, a managing...

USFN Adds New Members.(United States Foreclosure Network)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Tustin, CA -- Five new firms have joined USFN as members and five additional firms have joined as associate members in 2005, the organization said. The five new member firms are Bishop, White & Marshall PS, Seattle; Halliday & Watkins PC,...

WaMu Trims Tax Contract with LandAmerica.
November 1, 2005... Richmond, VA -- LandAmerica Financial Group, a provider of real estate transaction services, said it will write down its "customer relationship intangible" value by $38 million following the decision by a key customer to end tax servicing...

Wells Fargo Leads In HE Volume.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... San Francisco -- Of the top residential second lien lenders during the first half of 2005, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage turned out to be the largest lender of seconds in terms of actual loans granted. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Home Mortgage...

WaMu Seals Providian Deal, Boosting Cross-Sell Potential.
November 1, 2005... Seattle -- Washington Mutual Inc. here has completed its acquisition of credit-card provider Providian Financial in a deal valued at $6.1 billion. For each share of Providian held, the stockholders of that company received 0.4005 shares of...

WaMu Still Wary of Mortgage Servicing Rights.
November 1, 2005... New York -- Washington Mutual's chairman and CEO, Kerry Killinger, likes the mortgage business. But that doesn't mean he wants his company to be thought of as a mortgage bank. Speaking at a Lehman Brothers investment conference here, Mr....

New Loans, MSRs Get FDIC Scrutiny.
November 1, 2005... Washington -- In 2004, HELOC borrowings grew at a 41.8% annual rate, raising regulatory concerns and warnings that lenders should tighten underwriting and risk-management practices. The regulators also noted a decline in the value of mortgage...

Servicers Must Grapple with Katrina Questions.
November 1, 2005... In addition to the human toll they exacted, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, to a lesser extent, have left behind a storm of issues for mortgage servicers in their wake. While servicers are still in the process of assessing the damage to properties...

CMBS Key to Commercial Mortgage Market Liquidity.
November 1, 2005... New York -- The development of commercial mortgage-backed securities financing has changed the financing scene for commercial properties, especially by imparting more liquidity, according to a panel session on "permanent financing" at an...

Laureate Capital Acquires $325 Million of Commercial Servicing Rights.
November 1, 2005... Charlotte, NC -- Laureate Capital has acquired Atlanta-based Wilson & Nolan Southeast for an undisclosed amount, in a move that will expand Laureate's Atlanta operations and give it a presence in Jacksonville, Fla. The acquisition includes...

Criimi Mae Sold To Canadian Firm.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Rockville, MD -- CDP Capital Financing, a subsidiary of Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, is acquiring Criimi Mae in a transaction valued at about $328 million. A subsidiary of CDP Capital will merge into Criimi Mae and Criimi Mae's...

LoanPerformance Tests 'TrueStandings Servicing'.
November 1, 2005... San Francisco -- Loan Performance, a subsidiary of First American Real Estate Solutions that provides data, research and analytics for the mortgage industry and Wall Street, has released the beta-test version of a new Web-based analysis and...

U.S. Recordings Expands Footprint.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... St. Paul, MN -- U.S. Recordings here, a provider of mortgage recording solutions since 1967, has expanded its electronic recording service to six new counties. InteleDoc Plus, the company's multilevel electronic recording platform, was...

Orion Launches 'Electronic Onsite Servicing' Product.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Southlake, TX -- Orion Financial Group, a mortgage industry document services provider, has developed a proprietary scanning process to streamline the lien assignment and release process. The "Electronic Onsite Servicing" system allows...

Fiserv Opens Nasdaq.
November 1, 2005... Fiserv Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Ken Jensen, second from right, Fiserv Senior Vice President and COO Norm Balthasar, center with plaque, and Fiserv President and CEO Leslie Muma, immediately to his right, were...

FBR Sees No Fallout from Alternative Documentation.
November 1, 2005... Arlington, VA -- A report from Friedman Billings Ramsey & Co. here said adjustable-rate subprime mortgage loans with alternative documentation perform better than their counterparts with full documentation. The report from Michael...

Trustees to Hold Annual Conference.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... New York -- The nonprofit corporation United Trustees Association will hold its 30th annual education conference and trade show, "New Horizons - a Celebration of 30 Years of Excellence," at the Green Valley Ranch Resort and Spa in Henderson,...

S&P: Bursting of Bubble Shouldn't Sink MBS Market.
November 1, 2005... New York -- Standard & Poor's expects the housing boom to slow down, but analysts at the rating agency do not expect to see a market crash. Rather than a bursting bubble, they say that housing prices in the riskiest market may fall victim...

Low Credit Losses Help Offset Persistency Woes at MGIC.
November 1, 2005... Milwaukee -- MGIC Investment Corp. here reported an increase in its third-quarter net earnings of 6.2% and an increase in year-to-date earnings of 19.1%. Curt Culver, president and chief executive of MGIC, said he was pleased with the...

HUD, VA Allow MERS Charge.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Washington -- The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Veterans Affairs now permit lenders to charge borrowers MERS registration fees on all FHA and VA insured mortgage loans. Margaret Burns, director of the...

FHA Places New Premium On Condo, Rehab Loans.
November 1, 2005... Washington -- The Federal Housing Administration has directed its lenders to start charging upfront insurance premiums on condominium loans and 203(k) purchase/renovation loans next year. All condo and 203(k) loans closed on or after Jan. 1...

FHLBs Face New Predatory Rules.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Washington -- The Federal Housing Finance Board wants the Federal Home Loan Banks to review their anti-predatory lending policies and ensure they are comprehensive and effective. "Each FHLBank must have in place comprehensive anti-predatory...

Do Consumers Understand Nuances of Option-Payment ARMs?
November 1, 2005... Washington -- Federal regulators appear to be scared that option-payment ARMs are going to blow up in the next few years and borrowers could get burned, especially if the economy goes into recession. As option adjustable-rate mortgages...

Regulators Will Oversee Subordinated Debt Deals.
November 1, 2005... Washington -- The next time Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issue subordinated debt, it will be with the approval of their federal supervisor - the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. In 2000, the two government-sponsored enterprises...

Hansen Adds Fraud Prevention to Risk Management Tool.(Hansen Quality)
November 1, 2005... Jacksonville, FL -- Fidelity National Information Services' Hansen Quality, a provider of collateral valuation and appraisal review products, has launched an automated fraud screening tool with a focus on identity fraud. This new product will...

Datawatch Saves RMIC on Workers.(Republic Mortgage Insurance Co.)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Winston-Salem, NC -- Private mortgage insurer Republic Mortgage Insurance Co. here reports significant improvements in the efficiency of contract workers from using the Datawatch Monarch data-mining tools. RMIC, which underwrites about...

Fidelity Brings Beginning-to-End Agenda to Convention.
November 1, 2005... Jacksonville, FL -- When Fidelity National Financial executives travel to the MBA annual convention, they expect a lot of traffic from mortgage servicing professionals and representatives of other segments of the industry. Traditionally...

Offshoring Helps First Magnus Gain New Lending Efficiencies.
November 1, 2005... Tucson, AZ -- First Magnus Financial Corp. here has turned to Trinity Partners also here to offshore non-mission critical functions including policy audits and loan closing processes. This continues a relationship established between the...

First Resource Adds Title Unit.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Exton, PA -- First Resource Bank here has opened its own title insurance affiliate, First Resource Land Transfer LLC. The title company was formed through an affiliation with Whitford Land Transfer Co., a title insurance company also here....

MISMO Recognizes Contributions to Data Standards.
November 1, 2005... Washington -- For the first time, the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, Washington, will recognize those that contribute to forming the XML standards published by the organization with a MISMO Staff Appreciation Award. ...

Lender Placed Insurance.(home improvement loans)(Hurricane Katrina effect on mortgages)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Recent events have made the importance of collateral insurance all too clear for mortgage lenders. Just to give you an idea, while the full tally of damage to residential property from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita won't be known for some time,...

Proctor Financial Says Expectations Are Rising Fast.(workflow and imaging technologies makes insurance processing more faster)
November 1, 2005... Troy, MI -- Proctor Financial Inc., a division of the Brown & Brown national insurance agency that provides lender-placed hazard insurance coverage, says the industry landscape is changing as lenders look for ways to manage costs while...

Loan Protector Says Flexibility is Key to Coverage.
November 1, 2005... Solon, OH -- For companies like Loan Protector here, being in the insurance tracking and verification business isn't as simple as it perhaps once was. "The real industry trend is that more and more services are required to be in the...

Fannie and Freddie Face Upwards of $500 Million in Hurricane Losses.(Federal National Mortgage Association)(Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp)
November 1, 2005... Washington -- Combined, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stand to lose more than a half billion dollars from damage caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the total could be more than $800 million, demonstrating the importance of hazard and flood...

360,000 Loans Hit by Katrina.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Washington -- Some 360,000 residential mortgages could be negatively impacted by the rampage caused by Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, according to preliminary estimates made by the Mortgage Bankers Association. ...

Insurance Institute Urges Consumers to Update Coverage.(homeowners insurance)(hurricanes effect)
November 1, 2005... New York -- An organization representing the insurance industry is urging homeowners, in the wake of recent hurricanes, to re-examine their hazard insurance policies to make sure coverage is sufficient to include improvements, major purchases...

State Farm Is Leading Homeowners Underwriter.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... New York -- State Farm Mutual Group has the largest market share among underwriters of homeowners insurance coverage, according to the Insurance Information Institute. The institute, relying on data from the NAIC annual statement database...

First Cracks Seen in Housing 'Bubble'.(residential real estate)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Baltimore -- According to several recent reports, the pace of home price appreciation actually increased in the second quarter of 2005, building upon several years of stronger-than-expected price gains. But one economist not only believes there...

Fixed Rate Mortgages as a Percentage of Total Servicing at 6/30/05.(Illustration)
November 1, 2005... (dollars in millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 IXIS/CDC Real Estate Capital New York, NY 2 Ivanhoe Financial, Inc. Orlando, FL 3 Secured Bankers Mortgage Co....

Nationwide Title Partners with Ingeo.(Ingeo Systems)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Palm Harbor, FL -- Nationwide Title Clearing here, a provider of lien release outsourcing, has completed its alliance with Ingeo Systems, a provider of electronic document recording technology. "Adding the alliance with Ingeo to our existing...

Moody's Affirms Citi's Servicer Ratings.
November 1, 2005... New York -- Moody's Investors Service has affirmed CitiMortgage's top rating as a primary servicer of prime residential mortgage loans. Moody's said that Citi's "SQ1" rating is based on strong collection abilities, strong loss mitigation...

Servicing People.
November 1, 2005... CALIFORNIA Calabasas-Interthinx, a provider of fraud prevention and decision support tools for the mortgage industry, has appointed Ann Fulmer as vice president of industry relations. As VP of industry relations, Ms. Fulmer works with...