Mortgage Servicing News articles from November 2008

Mortgage Servicing News archives from November 2008

AGs Say Too Few Get Forbearance.
November 1, 2008... Byline: Jennifer Harmon Washington-A new report says too many homeowners face foreclosure without receiving meaningful assistance from their mortgage servicer. In its third "Analysis of Subprime Mortgage Servicing Performance," the...

Cerberus Might Get More of GMAC.
November 1, 2008... New York-If General Motors and Chrysler LLC merge, as rumored, hedge fund giant Cerberus Capital will wind up owning an even larger stake in General Motors Acceptance Corp. and its home lending/servicing arm, Residential Capital Corp. At...

Court Strikes Class Action in Option ARM Case.
November 1, 2008... Byline: Jennifer Harmon Chicago-The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down the class certification in a closely watched lawsuit by a Wisconsin couple who maintained that they didn't understand the initial 1.95% teaser rate was...

Foreclosure No Longer a Taboo Topic.(Credit Counselor)
November 1, 2008... Byline: Amilda Dymi Foreclosure used to be the kind of unpopular situation people would rather not talk about. Times have changed. Bad news pouring in from every state and on a daily basis demands an extra effort to ensure parties involved...

FDIC Gives Escrow Assurance FDIC Assurance.
November 1, 2008... Byline: Brian Collins Washington-The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has simplified its rules on insuring mortgage servicing accounts so that mortgage-backed securities investors are better protected in the event of a bank and thrift...

FHA Refinancing Effort Gets Underway.
November 1, 2008... Byline: Brian Collins Washington-The Department of Housing and Urban Development has launched a special Federal Housing Administration refinancing program mandated by Congress in July as part of a major housing bill, but is unclear how...

Borrowers Falling Behind on Seconds as Well.
November 1, 2008... Byline: Lew Sichelman Austin, TX-Two years ago, 45% of homeowners who were experiencing difficulty paying down their home-equity lines of credit also were struggling to pay their first mortgages. Today, that figure has climbed to 61%,...

Trillions in Mortgage Debt Is Likely Underwater.
November 1, 2008... Byline: Ted Cornwell New York-Experts at Moody's Economy.com now believe that one in six homeowners owe more debt on their home than the house is currently worth. Moreover, economists at the firm currently expect home prices to drop...

BB&T Remains atop Servicer Satisfaction List.
November 1, 2008... Byline: Ted Cornwell Westlake Village, CA-Overall customer satisfaction with their mortgage servicer has dropped for the second straight year, according to J.D. Power and Associates, but primarily prime mortgage companies continue to score...

Aurora Loan Services in Limbo after Lehman Fails.
November 1, 2008... Washington-Aurora Loan Services of Colorado is in doubt with the bankruptcy of its parent, Lehman Brothers. Investment bankers interviewed last month expect that ALS, a subprime/specialty servicer, will be sold in the coming months. ...

Why the 'Too Big to Fail' Doctrine Scares Me Today.(Mortgage Scene)
November 1, 2008... Byline: Paul Muolo First, the good news: thanks to the mortgage/credit crisis and the ensuing financial panic, we have created a new cadre of "mega banks" that are large, well capitalized and have come to the rescue of their ailing...

Counseling Reduces Low-Income Foreclosures.
November 1, 2008... Washington-Responsible one-on-one counseling combined with long-term financial planning and in-house origination-to-servicing appears to be an efficient strategy that minimizes foreclosure rates, especially among "high-risk" low-income...

SERVICING PEOPLE.(Special Report)(briefs)(Thompson National Properties)(Santa Ana-Kondaur Capital Corp.)
November 1, 2008... CALIFORNIA Irvine-Thompson National Properties said that Thomas Gentry has joined the company as regional vice president, South Central region. Previously, Mr. Gentry was regional vice president at Security Benefit Group where he was...

Most Struggling Homeowners Meet Relief Criteria.(Managing REO)
November 1, 2008... Byline: Amilda Dymi Atlanta-A recent survey finds the majority of homeowners at risk of foreclosure will qualify for relief under the new federal housing bill that took effect Oct. 1. Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater...

Colorado Shows First Signs of a Downward Trend.(Managing REO)
November 1, 2008... Byline: Jennifer Harmon According to the RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for August, the nation's foreclosure activity rose almost 12% from July and 27% from August 2007. One in every 416 U.S. households received a...

Index: No Further Price Acceleration.(Managing REO)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Santa Ana, CA-As home prices continue to decline, First American CoreLogic is projecting pre-foreclosures and foreclosure filings through the end of the 2008 to reach 3.2 million, an increase of just over 80% from a year ago. According to...

Foreclosure Victims at Risk of Losing Out the Vote?(Managing REO)
November 1, 2008... Byline: Amilda Dymi Washington-The forthcoming presidential election entails an economic and social connection between foreclosures and the vote, which most do not see as the "In what physical ballot will these people vote?" problem. ...

GSEs Bolstering Foreclosure Prevention Efforts.(Managing REO)
November 1, 2008... Byline: Brian Collins Washington-Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have stepped up their foreclosure prevention efforts now that the two mortgage giants are operating in conservatorships and under the tight control of their regulator. ...

Servicer Workout Tally Reaches 2.3 Million.(Managing REO)
November 1, 2008... Byline: Ted Cornwell Hope Now, an alliance of mortgage servicers, counselors and investors, said member companies have prevented 2.3 million foreclosures during the past 14 months through a mix of repayment plans, forbearance and loan...

Loan Mods, Late Payments Increase Substantially.(Managing REO)
November 1, 2008... Byline: Ted Cornwell Washington-Loan modifications by banks and thrifts rose substantially in the second quarter, but delinquency and default rates also increased, according to data compiled by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency...

Aiming to Change Bank-Owned Home Buys.(Managing REO)
November 1, 2008... Byline: Ted Cornwell Atlanta, GA-Helping potential homebuyers and investors navigate the process of buying bank-owned homes has become big business, especially given the current state of the housing market. Many websites offer...

A Glance at REOs Southwest.(Managing REO: Continuous Growth Still Consistent)
November 1, 2008... Byline: Matt Hudson The most popular thing being said during any interview on a major media business outlet currently is that the United States has seen a boom in the number of foreclosures that are flooding into the local real estate...

Wilherst Program Rescues REOs and Provides AH.(Managing REO)
November 1, 2008... Byline: Amilda Dymi Tampa, FL-Experts in the real estate-owned marketplace have launched Wilherst Oxford LLC, a new venture capital company whose goal, they say, "is to spearhead a real estate rescue program" focused on generating...

Wingspan Seeks to Help Turn Around Problem Portfolios.(Managing REO)
November 1, 2008... Byline: Ted Cornwell Carrollton, TX-Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, Carrollton, Texas, a mortgage servicing specialist, has opened its doors to assist lenders and servicers plagued by seriously delinquent loans. The service is aimed not only...

Parkside Capitalizes with DocuTecha[euro][TM]s Assistance.(Special Report)(Parkside Lending )
November 1, 2008... Byline: James Comtois New York-After being a DocuTech customer for about a year, a San Francisco-based lender has seen substantial results in creating a more compliant and paperless lending environment at a time when the industry is facing...

Demand for Electronic Documents Still Rising.(Special Report)
November 1, 2008... New York-As lenders look to cut costs, origination vendor Ellie Mae expects lenders to be buzzing about electronic document management at this year's show. "We continue to see record growth around EDM," said Ellie Mae chief strategy...

MRG Offers Online Access to Loan Mod Docs.(Special Report)(MRG Document Technologies)
November 1, 2008... Byline: Amilda Dymi Dallas, TX-Lenders using MRG Document Technologies' Miracle Online document preparation system now have the option to request document modification and loan modification agreements simply by accessing the Internet. ...

Ocwen Patents Online Remittance Process.(Special Report)(Ocwen Financial Corp.)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... West Palm Beach, FL-Ocwen Financial Corp., a servicer of subprime mortgage loans, has received a patent for an e-commerce invoicing system it uses to streamline the complex task of managing real estate-owned properties. Ocwen's REALRemit...

DOC Management.(Special Report)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Despite the immense investment that has been made in going paperless, today's top lenders still count document management as one of their top operational concerns. The industry has succeeded in making documents easier to locate, store and...

Scratch & Dent Buyers Await Bailout Details.
November 1, 2008... Byline: Paul Muolo Washington-The sale of large scratch-and-dent loan packages has just about dried up as the mortgage industry waits to see how the government will implement a $700 billion rescue package for the capital markets. ...

Stemming Losses, Regaining Profitability.(Point of View)
November 1, 2008... Byline: Clayton Baker Clayton Baker, an 18-year financial services veteran focusing on mortgages and consumer lending, leads consumer finance advisory services at Ernst & Young. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not...

Replenishment Poses Challenge.(News Analysis)
November 1, 2008... Byline: Paul Muolo Washington-It's starting to get lonely at the top for the "big five" of residential servicing. Then again, that might be OK with them. In the world of residential loan servicing it's all about economies-of-scale:...

Bailout Blues.(Editorial)
November 1, 2008... The federal government has created a template for widespread loan modifications with the FDIC's bold gambit to rescue thousands of IndyMac borrowers from potentially toxic option-ARM loans. The gist is this: refinance them into a fixed-rate...

Excess Inventory Will Delay Market Recovery.
November 1, 2008... Byline: Lew Sichelman Washington-The nation's excess housing inventory totals nearly 3 million units, according to a new tally by the National Multi-Housing Council. The group counts nearly 1 million empty units on the market over and...

Was Hedging a Bright Spot in '07?
November 1, 2008... Not surprisingly, most of the data from the annual cost study and other analyses by the Mortgage Bankers Association paint a pretty bleak picture of the state of the industry. By 2007, declining loan production volume and emerging industry...

Banks to Get Mark-to-Market Break.
November 1, 2008... Byline: Brian Collins Washington-Industry groups and their allies in Congress focused their frustration with the financial crisis on mark-to-market accounting rules and last month successfully pushed the accounting authorities to cut...

Mega-Servicers Score Highest.
November 1, 2008... Byline: Ted Cornwell Washington-Servicers participating in the annual cost study put out by the Mortgage Bankers Association turned a profit and kept costs under control last year, but increasingly the largest firms are pulling way ahead...

Treasury Urged to Bolster Performing Market.
November 1, 2008... Byline: Brian Collins Washington-Treasury secretary Henry Paulson might consider buying performing mortgages, instead of nonperforming assets, as a way to increase liquidity and lending, according to a mortgage industry veteran. Terry...