Servicing

Flagstar Bank has closed its $400 million public offering, which included nearly 116 million shares of common stock priced at $1 per share. At the same time, the company said it is selling $474 million of non-performing first mortgage loans at a loss.

PHH Mortgage says its servicing department never used so called "robo-signers" to process foreclosures, as some of its rivals did.

The number of vacant homes for sale declined 2.4% in the third quarter from the same period a year ago, according to the Census Bureau, but the housing market still suffers from a glut of 1.93 million vacant homes, which is exerting downward pressure on values.

It is not a question of when or how. There is an immediate need for dialogue to occur between lenders and Realtors in order to improve the short sale process and close more successful transactions.

With the rising foreclosure numbers being a major issue in the market right now, Paladin Strategic Partners is responding to the problem by providing socially responsible solutions.

Ally Financial Inc. on Wednesday reported a third-quarter profit of $269 million, its third consecutive quarter in the black, driven by strong results in both its mortgage banking, and automotive finance units.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust, a vulture fund launched by former Countrywide Financial president Stan Kurland, earned $7.7 million in the third quarter, and declared a cash dividend of 42 cents a share.

Freddie Mac posted a $4.1 billion loss in the third quarter — after paying a $1.6 billion dividend to the U.S. Treasury — but also saw its overall "serious" delinquency rate fall to 3.8%.

Defaults, foreclosures and depreciation combined with unprecedented regulatory compliance demands have already transformed loan servicing into a highly complex and pricey process that inevitably will become even more expensive.Nobody can predict how long it will take to process, modify, review or foreclose the millions of distressed assets currently in the servicers pipelines or clogging courthouses. Estimations vary from two years to five and even 10 years. It is getting clearer, however, how overall mortgage market changes have changed subservicing.

Insiders expect significant servicing quality control cost increases as mortgage servicers go under financial and political pressure to implement efficient systems.Maybe the biggest lesson learned from “foreclosure-gate” is that servicers need to slow down, says Gagan Sharma of BSI Financial Services, Irving, Texas. A few “extra steps and checkpoints” may help control the risk of unforeseen processing costs. The servicing industry has already streamlined processes “as much as possible,” he says, now that foreclosure-gate is making people realize that “there is so much streamlining you can do.”