The impending wave of loan delinquencies because of the coronavirus hurt private mortgage insurer earnings, but the companies will still have sufficient capital, a Keefe, Bruyette & Woods report said.

Title underwriters won’t be hit as hard by the coronavirus as other insurers, but related economic changes will challenge them, Fitch Ratings said, in assigning a negative outlook to the sector.

Independent mortgage bankers had their most profitable fourth quarter in seven years for originations, but the fallout from the coronavirus could upset the economics of the industry in the short term.

Impac Mortgage Holdings decided a year ago to emphasize its non-qualified mortgage lending operations and placed the company in position to succeed when the housing market returns to normal.

Companies in the mortgage business were already focused on processing a lot of loans and generating efficiencies before the latest uptick in business hit.

With the return of volume and profitability to mortgage lending, it is no surprise that commercial banks are coming back to the market.

Altisource Portfolio Solutions lost nearly the same amount of money as it did for the whole year while it continued the business transition started in 2018.

CoreLogic's fourth-quarter earnings reflect the success of the transformation to an appraisal management company business model accelerated in the prior-year period.

The cancellation by New Residential of a money-losing subservicing agreement should benefit Ocwen's financial results going forward, the company said.

Mr. Cooper Group reported fourth-quarter net income of $461 million, aided by the recovery of its deferred tax asset and a positive mark-to-market on its servicing portfolio.

Equifax has released a series of bundled services aimed at helping financial institutions use data and analytics to manage tasks associated with the process of servicing mortgage loans.

The CEO of Freedom Mortgage, Stanley Middleman, provides his take on trends affecting independent mortgage bankers as well as the residential real estate finance industry at large.

Fidelity and Essent reported higher year-over-year profits in the last three months of 2019 as refinancing increased business volume, but Black Knight took a hit on its Dun & Bradstreet investment.

Freddie Mac saw a decline in net profit in 2019 due to decreased interest rate income, lower amortization revenue and risk-reducing investment costs, but its consecutive-quarter results improved.

Fannie Mae identified the adoption of hedge accounting and regular issuance of multifamily Connecticut Avenue Securities deals as among strategies it could continue to pursue while navigating regulatory uncertainties and change.

First American Financial, a title insurance underwriter and settlement services provider, is acquiring mortgage document firm Docutech for $350 million in cash.

NMI Holdings saw its insurance-in-force grow 38% over the past year as 90% of its clients used its black box pricing module during the fourth quarter.

Ocwen Financial Corp. is on track to become profitable on a pretax basis by the third quarter without any special items enhancing earnings, according to a preliminary release of its fourth-quarter results.

The strong refinance market in the fourth quarter propelled earnings at three different mortgage-related business that also were dealing with merger and acquisition activity during and after the period.

The U.S. mortgage insurance business remained a bright spot for Genworth Financial, as fourth quarter adjusted operating income increased 29% and new insurance written rose nearly 95% over the prior year.