Mortgage Servicing News articles from September 2005

Mortgage Servicing News archives from September 2005

CSFB Closes the Deal to Buy SPS.
September 1, 2005... New York -- Credit Suisse First Boston has sealed its deal to get into the mortgage servicing business, agreeing to buy SPS Holdings for approximately $144.4 million in mid-August. In addition, SPS said that it may pay up to $39.9 million...

Servicing Consolidation Keeps Gathering Steam.
September 1, 2005... Washington -- Consolidation in the residential servicing sector picked up steam in the second quarter, according to exclusive survey figures compiled by Mortgage Servicing News. The nation's top five servicers, as a group, serviced 44.65%...

Servicers Ranked by Number of Loans Serviced at 6/30/05.
September 1, 2005... (part 1 of 2) Rank Organization Name Location 1 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage San Francisco, CA 2 Countrywide Financial Corp. Calabasas, CA 3 Washington Mutual Seattle, WA ...

Cost of Servicing Drops.(a report by Mortgage Bankers Association)
September 1, 2005... New York -- It may not have seemed like much of a slowdown, but a Mortgage Bankers Association study shows that the direct expense associated with loan administration declined last year as a result of fewer loan setups and payoffs. Those...

Ocwen Hurt by Decline In VA Foreclosure Rate.
September 1, 2005... Washington -- Foreclosures on VA-guaranteed single-family loans are declining at an accelerating rate and it is hurting the bottom line of Ocwen Financial Corp., which has an exclusive property management contract with the Department of...

HUD Seeks Ways to Reverse Declining Fortunes of FHA.
September 1, 2005... Las Vegas -- In recent years, the Federal Housing Administration has been plagued by high delinquency rates and shrinking loan origination volume, but the FHA's new commissioner hopes to revitalize the government's largest mortgage insurance...

Ginnie Puts Bet On E-Commerce.(electronic commerce)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Las Vegas -- In an effort to reduce the reporting burden on issuers and servicers, Ginnie Mae is in the process of significantly enhancing its electronic commerce capabilities, a senior Ginnie Mae executive told attendees at the Western States...

SunTrust Ranks Highest in Customer Satisfaction.
September 1, 2005... Westlake Village, CA -- SunTrust Mortgage tops the industry in a recent survey rating customer satisfaction with mortgage servicing companies, according to J.D. Power and Associates here. SunTrust was followed in the rankings by World...

Bankruptcy Reform.
September 1, 2005... The recently enacted bankruptcy reform legislation was meant to aid creditors - including mortgage lenders - by making it more difficult for consumers to shed debt through personal bankruptcy filings. But it's unclear if that's the effect the...

Technology Streamlines Default Management.
September 1, 2005... Mr. Kuegler is vice president of strategic sales at TransUnion Settlement Solutions. New research by TransUnion indicates that mortgage delinquencies are expected to plateau after steadily increasing for the past five years. This has made...

When the Music Stops, Who Loses a Seat?
September 1, 2005... Let's face it, folks: the good times won't last forever in mortgages and housing. Right? Of course, predicting an end to the current housing and mortgage boom is like predicting sea currents - which means just when you think you understand...

Slight Acceleration Seen in Prepay Speeds.
September 1, 2005... New York -- Prepayment rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages in agency mortgage-backed securities increased only a tepid 3% in July, according to Bear Stearns & Co. Overall speeds on 30-year Fannie Mae collateral stood at a constant...

U.S. Recordings Blends Doc Workflow, Recording.
September 1, 2005... Saint Paul, MN -- When it comes to making loan satisfactions and related recording tasks more efficient, U.S. Recordings has found that document management technology is a good complement to the burgeoning business of electronic recording of...

Fidelity Offers National Disaster Tracking Service.
September 1, 2005... Jacksonville, FL -- Fidelity National Financial's LSI Market Intelligence Division is now offering lenders a national network of real estate agents who can report on the condition of specific properties following a natural disaster. ...

Bill Beckman.
September 1, 2005... Citigroup has named Mr. Beckmann president of its CitiMortgage affiliate in O'Fallon, Mo. He replaces David Schneider who recently departed the company to become president of Washington Mutual's home loan unit. Mr. Beckmann is a 20-year veteran...

Orion Says ACS Partnership Builds E-Recording Volume.
September 1, 2005... Southlake, TX -- Orion Financial Group here, a document services provider, said its alliance with ACS to facilitate electronic recording has resulted in a substantial increase in electronically recorded documents. By the beginning of...

MortgageFlex Technology Certified by Freddie Mac.
September 1, 2005... Jacksonville, FL -- MortgageFlex Systems has received certification from Freddie Mac that will result in the processing of investor loans over a secure Internet communications channel between the government-sponsored enterprise and its...

Florida Mortgage Facility Sold.
September 1, 2005... New York -- The Blackstone Group here has purchased the T-Rex 1.7-million-square-foot office park in Boca Raton, Fla., where Morgan Stanley's mortgage fulfillment center is based. The purchase price was $193 million. T-Rex Capital LLC...

Second Quarter a Tough One for Servicers.
September 1, 2005... The second quarter was a doozy for mortgage servicers. Just when you thought that the only mention of "impairment" in the future was going to be in the context of recaptured value, long-term interest rates took a dip, leaving lenders exposed to...

Impairment Slows Growth at M&T Bank in 2nd Quarter.
September 1, 2005... Buffalo, NY -- M&T Bank Corp. here said second-quarter earnings per share rose 10% on a year-over-year basis, despite a $27 million hit to its mortgage servicing rights. M&T said EPS was $1.69 in the second quarter, reflecting net income...

Fiserv to Buy BillMatrix.(merging of financial)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Brookfield, WI -- Fiserv has reached a deal to buy BillMatrix Corp., a provider of electronic bill payment services, for approximately $350 million, the companies said. BillMatrix is expected to generate revenue of approximately $90...

Claims Weigh Down Results Of Some Mortgage Insurers.
September 1, 2005... New York -- Triad Guaranty Inc., the smallest of the nation's seven private mortgage insurance firms, reported that its second quarter earnings decreased 8% from the prior year. Meanwhile three of its larger publicly traded competitors had...

Master Servicers Key in Disasters.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... New York -- Fitch Ratings has outlined its procedure for evaluating a natural disaster's implications for U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities, a procedure that it says "shines the spotlight" especially on the master servicer. After...

Fannie Mae's Ratings Affirmed.
September 1, 2005... New York -- Fannie Mae's financial reporting plans for fiscal year-end 2004 caused Fitch Ratings to affirm Fannie's AAA senior debt rating, but the government-sponsored enterprise's AA- subordinated debt and A+ preferred stock ratings remain on...

MSR Impairment Does Little Damage to Wells' Bottom Line.
September 1, 2005... San Francisco -- Wells Fargo reported record second-quarter income despite taking a $304 million impairment hit to the value of its mortgage servicing rights. Wells Fargo & Co. earned record diluted earnings per share of $1.12, up 12% from...

WaMu Plans to Rein in Size of MSR Asset.
September 1, 2005... Seattle -- Capitalizing on its fourth consecutive quarter of profitable mortgage activities, Washington Mutual chairman and CEO Kerry Killinger last week told investors that his company is "positioned to go toe-to-toe with any competitor in the...

Countrywide's Earnings Fall, But Don't Blame Servicing.
September 1, 2005... Calabasas, CA -- Countrywide Financial Corporation's second quarter earnings fell short of Wall Street expectations, and stiff competition on the pricing of new loans appears to be the main culprit. Countrywide said the margin in earns from...

CMBS Overdue Rates Continue to Improve.
September 1, 2005... The good news continues on the commercial mortgage delinquency front, with both Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor's reporting a further decline on commercial mortgage-backed securities delinquencies. Fitch has seen the delinquencies drop to...

Commercial Real Estate Still Attracting Investment.
September 1, 2005... New York -- Commercial real estate properties continued to attract investor interest in the second quarter, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, fueled by improving fundamental factors, interest rates and a lack of alternative...

Field Services.(home values are in growth)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... According to industry statistics, home values have been rising at a fast clip, helping troubled borrowers dig their way out of a default situation without succumbing to foreclosure. Just tell that to the people in Cleveland or in the Pocono...

Field Services Industry Focuses on Compliance, New HUD Guidelines.
September 1, 2005... Ohio -- With lenders under more pressure to make sure loan servicing practices meet applicable laws and regulations, vendors that serve the loan administration industry are also being scrutinized to make sure they don't cross any foul lines....

National Tax Search Sees Opportunity in Residential.
September 1, 2005... Chicago -- National Tax Search here is interested in moving beyond its core market, providing tax services to commercial mortgage lenders, to serve the residential market as well. Lori Eshoo, CEO of NTS, said that her firm is not...

Safeguard, USFN Share Knowledge.
September 1, 2005... Brooklyn Heights, OH -- Mortgage loan field service provider Safeguard Properties here is beefing up its networking by teaching classes across the country to industry professionals. The company's crusade to educate industry professionals about...

Landscape Is Changing for Field Service Industry.
September 1, 2005... Las Vegas -- The head of the nation's largest field services provider says that the field services niche is gaining respect and understanding from other participants in the mortgage servicing industry. "The entire field services landscape...

Rising Debt Burden in U.K. Contributes to Foreclosures.
September 1, 2005... London -- The numbers of repossessions and cases of mortgage arrears in the United Kingdom both rose in the first half of this year, but both remain at extremely low levels by historical standards, according to a new study by the Council of...

Assurant Reorganizes Property Units.
September 1, 2005... New York -- Assurant has reorganized its Assurant Solutions divisions into two separate businesses: Assurant Specialty Property and Assurant Solutions, the latter being the division that has in the past been known as Consumer Protection...

NAMFS Plans Annual Meeting in October.
September 1, 2005... New York -- The National Association of Mortgage Field Services will hold its annual conference Oct. 20-22 in Southern California. The NAMFS will be held at the Anaheim Hilton Conference Center. The conference includes a golf event...

Servicing Consolidation Rides Again -- A Look at the Top 10.(market share of service provider in mortgages)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Group Market Share Period Ending Top 10 58.69% 2Q 2005 Top 10 56.76% 4Q 2004 Top 10 51.64% 4Q 2003 Top 10 50.40% 4Q 2002 Top 10 49.60% 4Q 2001...

Servicing People.(Johnson Capital promoted James Magowan as director)(Escrowdesk appointed Nicole Castle as software engineer)(First American Title Insurance Co. appointed James J. Dufficy )
September 1, 2005... CALIFORNIA Los Angeles-Johnson Capital has promoted James Magowan to the position of director in the Los Angeles office. Mr. Magowan has been an analyst with the equity group of the company since March 2001. Prior to his...

Banks See Higher HE Delinquencies.
September 1, 2005... Washington -- Bucking a trend toward credit quality improvement, delinquency rates on home-equity loans and lines of credit increased in the first quarter of this year, according to the American Bankers Association. The delinquency rate...

WaMu Deal Good for Cross-Sales.
September 1, 2005... Washington -- Looking to put credit cards in the hands of its mortgage and home-equity (as well as its retail banking) customers, Washington Mutual here has agreed to buy Providian Financial, a credit-card provider based in San Francisco. The...