Servicing

Ocwen Financial Corp., West Palm Beach, Fla., has reported net income of $4.8 million ($0.07 per share) for 2003, compared with a loss of $68.8 million ($1.02 per share) in 2002.For the fourth quarter, the company reported net income of $4.5 million ($0.07 per share), compared with a loss of $10.1 million ($0.15 per share) a year earlier. William C. Erbey, Ocwen's chairman and chief executive officer, noted the company's return to profitability, but said its servicing business faces "continuing challenges" from rising prepayment rates. "Prepayment speeds in the subprime sector that comprises the vast majority of our servicing portfolio continue at high levels, resulting in significant costs for this business," Mr. Erbey said. "During 2003, the combined cost of mortgage servicing rights amortization expense and interest on prepayments, which are reported as reductions of fee income, rose by $48 million, or 62%, over 2002 levels." As of Dec. 31, Ocwen serviced approximately $37.7 billion of loans, up 23% from $30.7 billion at year-end 2002, Ocwen said. The company can be found online at http://www.ocwen.com.

First Republic Bank, San Francisco, has priced a $65 million offering of depositary shares representing interests in preferred stock.Each depositary share has a liquidation preference of $25 and represents 1/40th of a share of 6.70% noncumulative perpetual series A preferred stock. First Republic, which specializes in real estate lending and certain other financial services, can be found on the Web at http://www.firstrepublic.com.

The ratings on three classes of Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance Manufactured Housing securitizations have been placed on Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings.The affected classes are class B-1 of series 2000-C, class 1B-1 of series 2000-D, and class 1B-1 of series 2001-B. In addition, 17 classes were upgraded and the ratings on 55 classes were affirmed. "Although losses allocated to the trust have been low due to Vanderbilt's practice of repurchasing defaulted loans out of the trust at par, the performance of the company's loans has been worse than initially expected," Fitch said. The rating agency can be found online at http://www.fitchratings.com.

IndyMac Bancorp Inc., Pasadena, Calif., the holding company for IndyMac Bank, has reported record net earnings of $171.3 million ($3.01 per share) for 2003, up 19% from earnings in 2002.Mortgage loan production totaled a record $30 billion, up 44% from the volume recorded the year before, IndyMac said. For the fourth quarter, the company reported earnings of $43.3 million ($0.75 per share), up 22% from the earnings recorded a year earlier. Mortgage loan production totaled $6.3 billion. "In line with our expectations, in this quarter alone we increased our share of the single-family residential mortgage market by 44% and grew our earning assets 13% with strong adjustable-rate, single-family mortgage production," said Michael W. Perry, IndyMac's chairman and chief executive officer. IndyMac declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.25 per share, up from $0.20 per share in the previous quarter. The company can be found online at http://www.indymacbank.com.

The Federal Home Loan Banks' Mortgage Partnership Finance program funded $72.1 billion of loans last year, up 158% from the total of the year before.The FHLBank of Chicago, which coordinates the MPF program, also said that 707 FHLBank member financial institutions are approved to fund MPF loans, a gain of 62% from the end of 2002. Total MPF outstanding assets grew 108% last year to $86.7 billion. The Chicago FHLBank said the growth was primarily driven by conventional loans, reporting that the balance of conventional loans outstanding in the MPF program grew 153% during the year to $74.5 billion at year end.

Twelve classes of Greenpoint Credit Manufactured Housing Trust transactions have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings.The downgrades are as follows: in series 1999-5, classes M-1A and M-1B, from AA-plus to AA-minus, and class M-2, from A-plus to BBB; in series 2000-1, class A-3, from AAA to AA, classes A-4 and A-5, from AAA to A-plus, class M-1, from AA-minus to BBB-minus (and removed from Rating Watch Negative), and class M-2, from BB to CCC; and in series 2000-3, class IA from AAA to A-minus, class I M-1, from AA to BB-plus (and removed from Rating Watch Negative), class I M-2, from BBB to CCC, and class I B-1, from CCC to C. In addition, the ratings on six MH classes were affirmed. Fitch attributed the downgrades to poor collateral performance that caused losses to "significantly" exceed expectations. "Since exiting the MH [lending] business, Greenpoint has relied heavily on the wholesale channel and has recently seen recoveries of approximately 15%-20% for most transactions," Fitch said. "Like many manufactured housing servicers, Greenpoint relies heavily on modifications as a loss mitigation tool.... While Fitch believes modifications can help maintain cash flow on a low-recovery asset, Fitch expects the use of modifications to keep default rates higher than they would have been otherwise as the collateral seasons."

The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp., Washington, has reported net income of $25.1 million ($1.77 per share) for 2003, compared with $21.3 million ($2.08 per share) for 2002.For the fourth quarter, Farmer Mac's net income totaled $4.9 million ($0.40 per share), compared with $2.8 million ($0.23 per share) in the fourth quarter of 2002. Henry D. Edelman, Farmer Mac's president and chief executive officer, said 90-day delinquencies in the company's portfolio as of Dec. 31 were at their lowest levels in more than two years as a result of credit risk management efforts and increasing strength in the U.S. agricultural economy.

Saxon Capital Inc., a residential mortgage lender and servicer based in Glen Allen, Va., has announced that its board of directors has authorized the company to convert to a real estate investment trust.Saxon said it plans to carry out the conversion, which requires shareholder approval, through a series of mergers among newly formed Saxon entities. The company said it expects Saxon shareholders to receive one share of the REIT common stock, plus a cash consideration, for each share of Saxon common stock they own. Saxon can be found on the Web at http://www.saxoncapitalinc.com.

GMAC Mortgage Corp., Horsham, Pa., has announced a restructuring of its default management operations department into two units, one focusing on collections and loss litigation and the other on foreclosure/bankruptcy and real estate owned.Mitch Oringer has been promoted to vice president and will assume responsibility for collections and loss mitigation, the company said. Lionel Antunes, vice president of default operations, will continue to manage the foreclosure and bankruptcy operations. Bill Maguire, GMAC Mortgage's senior vice president of risk management for national loan administration, said the restructuring "will allow us to better manage and control our risk, at the same time that it strengthens our ability to serve investors and clients across our products and customer brands."

Countrywide Financial Corp., Calabasas, Calif., has reported consolidated net earnings of $2.37 billion ($12.47 per share) for 2003, up 182% from $841.8 million ($4.87 per share) in 2002.For the fourth quarter, earnings totaled $563.7 million ($2.74 per share), up 121% from $254.9 million ($1.45 per share) a year earlier. The results reflect a 4-for-3 stock split that took effect in December, Countrywide said. In the mortgage banking segment, loan volume totaled $434.86 billion for the year, up 73%, but fourth-quarter volume of $76.32 billion was down 25% from that of a year earlier, the company reported. "Most noteworthy was the 33% year-over-year fourth-quarter increase in purchase volume, which helped to mitigate the decline in refinance volume," said Angelo R. Mozilo, Countrywide's chairman and chief executive officer. "In addition, demand for less interest-rate-sensitive products continued to be robust, with fourth-quarter year-over-year production volume increasing 145% for adjustable-rate mortgages, 54% for home equity loans, and 109% for subprime fundings." Countrywide said its servicing portfolio stood at $645 billion at the end of the year, more than double its $285 billion level at the beginning of the refi boom in December 2000. The company can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.