Servicing

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is abandoning its current assessment system of charging premiums based on an insured-institution's deposits, moving toward a system based on asset size.

The foreclosure document debacle, a huge embarrassment and liability for mortgage servicers, could soon also ensnare the banks that act as trustees for securitizations.

The world of mortgage servicing rights is about to get a whole lot more interesting—and not just because the Basel III accord caps MSRs at 10% of Tier I capital. No, that’s the just the beginning.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairman Sheila Bair said she has concerns about foreclosure processing problems plaguing the banking industry, in particular how it may affect loss-sharing arrangements entered into by the agency.

Fannie Mae has named investment banker John Nichols chief risk officer for its capital markets division.

Radian Group Inc., Philadelphia, is selling up to $350 million of convertible senior notes, using the net proceeds for working capital, including cash that will go into its mortgage insurance business.

Freddie Mac's chief operating officer took to the blogosphere Monday, defending the mortgage giant's response to foreclosure-gate and called the renewed confidence and normalization of the foreclosure process a major stride in attaining a "true housing recovery."

Conceptually speaking, packing thousands of modified FHA loans into Ginnie Mae pools should reduce prepayment speeds. In fact, that’s what some Wall Street dealers were counting on, but it appears they bet the wrong way, and their securitization strategy backfired.

Repurchase requests from secondary market investors — including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — could end up costing banks a total of $43 billion through 2012, according to a recent report from Standard & Poor's.

House price appreciation may not be what it used to be, but most participants in the National Association of Realtors' annual profile of buyers and sellers still believe home ownership is a sound investment.