Servicing

The Federal Housing Administration Tuesday morning officially launched a new refinancing program to aid underwater borrowers, allowing lenders to write a new government-backed mortgage where up to 10% of the original loan amount will be forgiven.

Mortgagors continued to pay down their residential loans in the second quarter, a trend that reduces their debt load but also spells potential trouble for mortgage banking firms that earn processing fees on such balances.

BB&T Corp., Winston-Salem, N.C., said roughly half of its $1.5 billion in warehouse commitments are currently funded.

Hundreds of American Credit Union Mortgage Association members will convene on September 15-18 in Las Vegas to attend its national conference.

Redwood Trust Inc., Mill Valley, Calif., says in its new quarterly review that it likely will come to market with a $300 million jumbo MBS sometime in the fourth quarter.

In math two negatives make for a positive, but in the mortgage marketplace when foreclosures drive a decrease in the number of properties with negative equity it is not a good sign.

Mortgage companies added 2,300 full-time employees to their payrolls in July as refinancing applications swelled, compensating for a weak purchase money business.

The GSE regulator Thursday issued new affordable goals that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are expected to meet this calendar year.

REO asset manager and loss mit provider Green River Capital says during the first half of 2010 it has increased REO assignments by nearly 8% from the same period in 2009 and decreased the time each property spends on the market by almost 15% compared to figures during the last 12 months.

Standard & Poor's Corp. this week added ZAIS Servicing Asset Management, Dallas, to its "Select" servicer list for firms working in the commercial mortgage specialty servicer space.