Finance

Because of the housing market meltdown, foreign governments and banks are shying away from bonds backed by American home loans. But individual foreign buyers are taking advantage of the crash to snap up U.S. bargains at a record clip.

SunTrust Banks Inc., which has already lost hundreds of millions after repurchasing bad mortgages, could lose up to $150 million as it deals with the cost of mortgage-servicing problems.

Boston-based Highfields Capital Management, which owns a 7.7% stake in CoreLogic, accused CoreLogic's board of directors' "desire to maintain control rather than doing what is in the best interest of shareholders."

Single-family originations by commercial banks and savings institutions jumped 23% in the fourth quarter as refinancing activity accelerated from the prior period, according to new figures released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

eWarehouseOne, Newport Beach, Calif., is exploring the idea of financing the purchase of mortgage servicing rights, a business that has been mostly dormant during the housing crisis.

Kinecta Federal Credit Union, Manhattan Beach, Calif., has opened a new mortgage loan center in Mission Valley, following the opening of another center in Rancho Penasquitos in December.

A proposed $8.5 billion Countrywide RMBS settlement has returned to New York state court in a move that has been largely expected to speed its approval, with Fitch Ratings now estimating it could move ahead in mid-2012.

The plan to decrease the government-sponsored enterprises' market share is "credit positive" for some parts of the market, such as stronger mortgage insurers, but "credit negative" for others, such as GSE debt, according to Moody's Investors Service.

Should Ally Financial Inc. break itself up, Ocwen Financial Corp. and private-equity shops might be interested in Ally's mortgaging servicing arm, Residential Capital LLC, which has mortgage servicing rights of $1.2 billion on mostly impaired loans, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. analysts wrote in a research note last week.

CMBS performance still appears to be stabilizing somewhat, at least for the time being, recent commentary from Moody's Investors Service indicates.

Citigroup has finally unloaded the rest of its minority stake in the Mumbai-based Housing Development Finance Corp. as part of its capital planning efforts, but will continue other business relationships with the company including investment and cash management services.

Fannie Mae late Friday finally had something to say about Bank of America's announcement that it would no longer sell new purchase money loans to the GSE: it hopes to resolve the buyback disputes between the two parties.

Twenty-four hours after Bank of America told Fannie Mae to take a hike on secondary market purchases, the realization is starting to sink in that one party -- the GSE -- may stand to lose a lot more than the seller/servicer.

First off, I'd like to thank the crew at Bank of America for continually giving mortgage reporters and editors something to write about. Don't get me wrong--there's plenty of good stories out there. And let's face it--and you read it here first: What happens regulatory and legislatively over the next three to four years should shape the future of this industry for the next 50 years.

Ah, the morning after a bitter split. Late yesterday Brian Moynihan of Bank of America walked into Fannie Mae's bedroom and told that secondary market hussy that the marriage was over. "No more loans for you," Moynihan shouted as he left the boudoir, suitcase in hand and a one-way ticket to Virginia where his new best friend, Freddie, awaited. (Okay, I made that part up but you get the drift.)

Bank of America Thursday afternoon confirmed that it will no longer sell any new purchase money mortgages to Fannie Mae -- though it will remain a HARP lender.

Rejected documents from the county recorder create time delays and decreased efficiencies add up to a cost of billions for the industry with the burden of this cost falling on the current holder(s) of the note. The process of preparing corrections, transporting and re-recording documents will cause double, sometimes triple, the work for employees of those firms.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency wants to see if the multifamily businesses of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can be spun off and privatized.

Weak demand for advances among member banks suppressed profits at several of the nation's Federal Home Loan Banks during the fourth quarter.

An upcoming legal decision related to whether a proposed $8.5 billion Countrywide RMBS settlement returns to New York state court could affect the speed at which a deal moves forward — or whether it happens at all, according to a new report from Barclays.