Servicing

GE Capital Mortgage Insurance Company, Raleigh N.C., announces several Internet applications designed for its lender and servicer customers.GE Mortgage Insurance Connect (www.gemiconnect.com) provides its Excel lenders with the ability to receive new commitments in a paperless environment. GE Mortgage Insurance Connest's Certiprint feature allows lenders and servicers to print mortgage insurance certificates or commitments for new and existing loans. The company reports that is processes 1,000 transactions per day on Certilink, including servicing transfers, claims, loan status reporting, account maintenance and billing. Certilink is used by more than 200 servicers.

Apollo Real Estate Advisors, San Francisco, a commercial real estate investment firm, will make a "major commitment" to CB Richard Ellis' environmental research initiative, the firms announced recently, increasing the real estate services firm's ability to invest in properties that require mitigation of environmental hazards.CB Richard Ellis, Los Angeles, has more than 9,000 employees worldwide. The company's servicees include property sales and leasing, property management, mortgage banking, investment management, capital markets, appraisal/valuation, and market research. CB Commercial and REI limited, which merged earlier this year to form CB Richard Ellis, had combined 1997 revenues of $848 million.

MGIC Investor Services Corp., Milwaukee, is brokering the sale of $988 million of mortgage servicing rights for an undisclosed Midwestern lender.The offering consists entirely of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans. The weighted average interest rate is 7.44% and the weighted average remaining term is 263 months. The portfolio contains 12,360 loans, 44% of which are in Indiana, 24% in Illinois, 10% in Minnesota, and 9% in Wisconsin. Bids are due Sept. 23.

Advanta Mortgage Conduit Services Inc. has priced a $500 million securitization of floating-rate mortgage loans.The effective pass-through yield on Advanta Mortgage Loan Trust 1998-3 certificates will be 23 basis points above the one-month London Interbank Offered Rate. Advanta Mortgage, a wholly owned subsidiary of Advanta Corp., will retain the servicing on the loans. The lead underwriter is Salomon Smith Barney, with J.P. Morgan, Lehman Brothers, and Prudential Securities as co-managers. The transaction is expected to close on Sept. 23. In other Advanta Corp. news, the company has announced that its board of directors has authorized the formation of an employee stock ownership plan that will buy shares of Advanta's common stock.

Life company mortgage investment delinquencies are at their lowest levels in over 28 years, a survey by the American Council of Life Insurance has found.The rate as of the end of the second quarter was 0.88%, down 6 basis points from the first quarter's 0.94%. Delinquencies on commercial mortgages, which make up 92% of life company mortgage investments, fell 5 bp from the first to the second quarter to 0.80%. This happened in spite of increases in delinquencies in five of the seven types of commercial investments. The delinquency rate improvement can be in part attributed to the foreclosure on $152 million of retail loans previously classified as delinquent, ACLI said.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued an interim rule that sets out the ground rules for its multifamily debt restructuring program.The interim rule, which appeared in Friday's Federal Register, has received generally good marks from housing experts who have seen a draft of the rule. The restructuring program is expected to deal with some 4,000 HUD-insured multifamily properties, and it is scheduled to get under way Oct. 27 if a director for the program is appointed by the president. Otherwise the program will be delayed. But such a delay could give lenders, owners, and other participants more time to get prepared for restructuring. "People are really scrambling now," said Charlie Wilkins, a restructuring consultant with WMF Group, Vienna, Va.

BNC Mortgage Inc., Irvine, Calif., has entered into a $280 million forward commitment with an unnamed New York-based investment bank.BNC will sell subprime mortgages originated between August and November. The pricing structure includes buy-ups and buy-downs for the actual weighted average coupons, margins, and prepayment penalties delivered. BNC in the past has sold $740 million of subprime loans to this buyer. BNC president Kelly W. Monahan said the company entered into this agreement in order to lock in cash premiums on loan sales through the end of this year.

The delinquency rate for Federal Housing Administration-insured adjustable-rate mortgages hit an all-time high in the second quarter, according to statistics released Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association.The seasonally adjusted delinquency rate for FHA ARMs was 9.35% at June 30 -- a 204-basis-point increase over the past 12 months and a 63-bp rise from the first quarter. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is already working to reduce delinquencies by placing restrictions on "teaser" rates and buydowns that lenders offer borrowers on FHA-insured ARMs. "But it is going to take awhile before those controls start to take hold," said MBA executive vice president Paul Reid. HUD is expected to endorse up to 237,107 ARMs in fiscal 1998. Government-backed ARMs are popular because they generate higher fees compared to a conventional 'A' paper loan. In addition, FHA ARMs are used to qualify low-income borrowers who otherwise would not be able to obtain a mortgage. However, the vast majority of FHA mortgages are fixed-rate. Data show that the total number of FHA FRMs past due has risen 35 bp year-over-year to 6.80%. The MBA said the overall residential delinquency rate, which includes both conventional and government product, was 4.33% in the second quarter -- an increase of 8 bp over the past year.

Starwood Financial Trust has acquired the commercial mortgage origination and servicing business of Phoenix Home Life Mutual Insurance Co. for an undisclosed amount.The acquired businesses and assets include: Phoenix's commercial mortgage origination, underwriting, and servicing group; the servicing/asset management rights to three commercial mortgage loan portfolios with an outstanding principal balance of $1.3 billion; and the refinancing rights to Phoenix's $950 million mortgage loan portfolio. Jay Sugarman, president and CEO of Starwood Financial, said the acquisition allows the company to expand its proprietary origination and servicing platform and generate a pipeline of financing opportunities. "We hope to replicate this transaction with other owners of real estate-related financial assets and businesses as we seek to further consolidate the sector," Mr. Sugarman said. Philip R. McLoughlin, Phoenix's executive vice president-investments, said the transaction is "also a strategic move for Phoenix, which is shifting the focus of its mortgage investment program to securitized assets." As part of the transaction, Starwood Financial will eventually centralize its loan servicing and related administrative functions in a new office in Hartford, Conn., under the supervision of Barbara Rubin, the former head of Phoenix's mortgage business.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has expanded its "officer next door" program and will subsidize the purchase of an additional 1,000 FHA foreclosed homes to local police officers.HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo, accompanied by Vice President Al Gore, announced the expansion of the program at a White House press conference Friday morning. Under the program, foreclosed Federal Housing Administration homes are sold at half price to police officers in an effort to promote safety and to revitalize neighborhoods. "When police officers move into an area, criminals want to move out and families want to move in," Secretary Cuomo said. Mortgage Bankers Association president Marc Smith announced that 50 mortgage lenders will give police officers a half-point discount on closing costs or a one-eighth of a point discount on interest rates as an additional incentive. HUD started the "officer next door" program one year ago with the goal of getting 2,000 police officers to move into problem neighborhoods that have been earmarked for revitalization. "It is good for neighborhoods and for police officers and their families," said Irene Hughes, a patrol officer with the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department who became a first-time homebuyer under the program.