Servicing

United Guaranty Corp., the mortgage insurance subsidiary of American International Group, posted operating income of $154 million for the fourth quarter, compared to a $241 million loss in the year ago period.

WASHINGTON — Bank regulators, law enforcement and various other federal and state officials continue to negotiate the proper punishment for more than a dozen large servicers that have mistreated mortgage borrowers.

Government controlled mortgage giant Freddie Mac posted a meager $113 million net loss in the fourth quarter — but actually earned $1.2 billion before having to pay the U.S. Treasury a hefty $1.6 billion dividend payment.

Mortgage bankers originated $23.1 billion of Federal Housing Administration-backed loans in January, a 12.5% decline from the prior month, according to new figures released Thursday.

More than 71% of short sales can take four to nine months to complete — and almost 10% of these transactions require at least 10 months, according to new survey figures released by Equi-Trax Asset Solutions.

Securitized hospitality loan delinquencies have been the highest in the CMBS market and tend to be the most volatile but one advisor, Mission Capital principal David Tobin, sees relatively improvement in them.

Mortgage Industry Advisory Corp. this week sold a $527 million package of bulk servicing rights tied to Government National Mortgage Association loans.

Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus on Thursday scheduled a hearing and markup for early March to consider four bills that would terminate government-backed loan modification/foreclosure prevention programs that he calls "failed and ineffective."

A California lender began selling jumbo loans this month to global asset manager BlackRock Inc., proof that private investors are not waiting for the securitization market to fully recover before getting back into mortgages.

Unemployment, property depreciation and general economic hardship are some of the attributes why RealtyTrac.com is predicting that there will be over 1.2 million homes repossessed by banks in 2011, which would be a 20% increase from repossession rates reported in 2010.