Servicing

Helios AMC, a commercial real estate special servicer which is sponsored by Ranieri Partners, has acquired real estate advisory firm The Situs Companies. The combined entity will retain the Situs name. The purchase price was not disclosed.

Fitch Ratings found delinquencies on loans underlying commercial mortgage-backed securities declined for the second month in a row in September as its numbers bore out what the company has identified as a trend toward improvement in the hotel sector.

Credit rating agency DBRS this week approved American Mortgage Consultants, New York, as a third-party due diligence provider for residential MBS.

As the Obama Administration examines options to expedite the sale of foreclosed properties, the Federal Housing Administration is weighing a tweak to its 203(k) program, opening it once again to investors.

Analysts found prepayments surged notably in September.

Mortgage companies continued to pare back their payrolls in August as lenders cut 2,800 full-time employees during the month, following 1,900 layoffs in July.

The Obama Administration's efforts to expand a GSE refinancing program and reach a large number of underwater borrowers will depend on how far the Federal Housing Finance Agency will go in providing lenders relief from loan buy-backs, according to industry officials and analysts watching the effort.

Fearing that the megabanks might get off too easy in the multi-state mortgage settlement talks, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is preparing to file lawsuits against the nation's largest servicers for wrongfully foreclosing on customers.

Fannie Mae, to date, has always seemed more aggressive than Freddie Mac in pressing major lenders to repurchase problem loans. Fannie has continually ratcheted up its requests for servicers to buy back loans, while Freddie has reduced its requests over the past four consecutive quarters.

Fitch Ratings has found more than one-third of loans underlying prime private-label mortgage-backed securities are now underwater, and it could get even worse.