Servicing

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Tuesday it would create two new divisions—one to handle systemic resolutions and the other devoted to consumer protection—in response to the enactment of the regulatory reform law.

One blueprint for turning Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into privately run enterprises that is getting some play at Treasury comes from Redwood Trust —the firm that made headlines this spring when it pulled off the first private-label jumbo securitization in almost two years.

Bank of America, in a new public filing, said it had $11.2 billion of "unresolved" mortgage buyback requests at June, a 50% spike since the beginning of the year.

Knight Capital Group Inc. has expanded its mortgage- and asset-backed securities capabilities in commercial real estate finance by hiring two managing directors in its Knight Libertas LLC unit.

Originator and servicer Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC, Horsham, Pa., has appointed Hugh F. Frater to replace departing chief executive officer Michael I. Lipson.

Farmer Mac's chief executive said purchases of loans through the Farmer Mac I and Farmer Mac II programs are at a record pace, as lenders in the agricultural and rural utilities sectors are looking for sources of capital and liquidity.

Even though the nation's megabanks are getting hammered by loan repurchase requests from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, small- to medium-sized nonbanks are escaping mostly unscathed, according to one mortgage advisor.

Navy Federal Credit Union, the largest CU player in mortgages, funded $944 million of single-family loans in the second quarter, a 56% decline from the same period last year.

The Treasury Department late last week quietly corrected its loan performance findings on completed HAMP modifications, which show its results are decent, but nowhere as good as originally reported.

I recently got to chair the SourceMedia Buying and Selling Distressed Mortgage Portfolios Conference in New York City, and I can't imagine a hotter topic (except perhaps loss mitigation). Here's what I said to conference attendees to open the show.