Finance

Mr. Cooper Group took a net loss of $136 million in the fourth quarter after lower rates hurt the mark-to-market value of its larger mortgage servicing rights portfolio harder than its peers.

Hines Interests used the $755 million loan from Goldman and JPMorgan to take out a $505 million mortgage from two insurance companies, MetLife and New York LIfe.

New York regulators rejected Fidelity National Financial's acquisition of Stewart Information Services because the combination would have a dominant share of title insurance in the state.

American Mortgage Consultants has acquired title search outsourcer String Real Estate Information Services as part of ongoing efforts to support all the services secondary-market clients need to conduct trades.

Arch Capital Group named Michael Schmeiser president and CEO of its U.S. mortgage insurance business as the former head moved up the corporate ladder.

The new regulation, codifying requirements already in practice, is meant to help the mortgage giants prepare for the adoption of a uniform security in June.

Ocwen Financial reduced the size of its net loss by nearly half during 2018 thanks to cost-cutting measures, and economies of scale from its acquisition of PHH Corp.

CoreLogic's fourth-quarter earnings declined from the previous year because of the slower mortgage origination market and an $8 million impairment charge due to its restructuring plans.

Altisource Portfolio Solutions recorded multimillion-dollar net losses in the fourth quarter and the full year for 2018, due to the reduction of the Ocwen Financial servicing portfolio and other repositioning activities.

Being too dependent on the automated underwriting tools created by the government-sponsored enterprises to originate loans underlying private-label mortgage-backed securitizations could negatively affect their credit quality, a report from Moody's said.

Without the ability to issue unsecured debt nearly as cheaply as U.S. Treasury bonds, Freddie Mac could not afford to repurchase defaulted loans from MBS, Freddie CEO Don Layton said.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is streamlining its Ginnie Mae holdings by combining mortgage-backed securities with similar characteristics into larger pass-through instruments.

The six private mortgage insurers had a great year as they continued to grab market share from the Federal Housing Administration. Despite some headwinds, 2019 is shaping up to be another good year.

With its latest round of funding, the mortgage fintech company will continue to build its digital platform, with a goal of reducing the complexities and costs of home buying.

Zillow Group Inc., the housing search website that's taken a hit to its stock price as it pursues an ambitious plan to buy homes and originate mortgages, is bringing back its first chief executive officer to lead the transformation.

New Residential priced its second stock offering in four months, looking for gross proceeds of nearly $665 million.

A digital mortgage startup called Brace is using machine learning to automate loss mitigation and has lined up backing from several venture capital sources, including a fund with high-profile investors like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

With a growing market share of home sales and wider breadth of services, Redfin posted significant annual revenue gains.

The government-sponsored enterprises are going through a transition period. From proposals for rebuilding their capital cushions to tackling shortages in affordable housing, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac face a number of key challenges with wide-ranging consequences this year.

Ginnie Mae should not overreact in supervising smaller, more diversified mortgage bankers, but rather scale its approach in line with the concentration of risk that different-sized servicers pose.