Servicing

Bank of America late Friday said it would create a unit to handle 1.3 million distressed residential loans, many of which it inherited when it bought Countrywide Financial Corp. in August 2008.

The White House plan to revamp Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will mandate that the two charge higher guarantee fees over the next few years, and also will allow the GSE loan cap to fall back to $625,500 by the fall, according to Washington sources.

Commercial property values have fallen 42% from their peak in 2007 and there are roughly $1 trillion in underwater CRE loans maturing the next few years that could be difficult to refinance, according to a new report from Trepp, LLC.

Mortgage origination services and technology at Lender Processing Services generated annual and quarterly revenue gains in the fourth quarter of 2010, including a 31.8% spike in settlement services revenue. But LPS said its Loan Facilitation Services segment operates in a sector likely to see marketwide potential revenue dive nearly 30% in 2011.

Take away the deferred tax asset write down and the mark-to-market of derivatives that Radian Group took in the fourth quarter, its results for the period were consistent with its competitors, said an analyst at FBR Capital Markets.

Mortgage REIT Annaly Capital Management posted net earnings of $1.2 billion for the fourth quarter, a 64% jump from the same period a year earlier, but below the expectations of some analysts.

With expectations rising that the White House and Congress will allow the GSE loan limit fall to $625,500 next fall, more investment banking firms — and even commercial banks — are exploring the idea of creating jumbo conduits.

For the first time since mid-August 2010, U.S. home prices stopped declining in early January, according to a Home Data Index Market Report by Clear Capital.

Vulture fund PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust earned $7.3 million in the fourth quarter, compared to a $1.1 million loss in the same period a year ago.

Freddie Mac's multifamily business had $15 billion in volume for 2010, down from $17 billion in 2009. The totals cover both its whole loan and bond guarantee business.