Servicing

Dan Sparks helped Goldman Sachs Group Inc. profit from its bets against subprime mortgages. Now he's expanding credit to Americans hurt when those types of loans soured and the housing market collapsed.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's overseer wants to allow debt cuts for a narrow group of borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth.

Standard & Poor's tab is $1.4 billion — including $52.5 million for Illinois — to resolve long-standing allegations by federal and state authorities that the firm misled investors in the run-up to 2008's financial collapse.

Bank of America plans to lay off 202 employees in a loan servicing unit in Norfolk, Va., by March 29 because of the continuing decline in the number of delinquent mortgages.

Deval, a loan servicing company in Dallas, has received its Freddie Mac servicer approval.

The Federal Housing Administration's new foreclosure relief options for nonborrowing spouses of reverse mortgage customers will increase loan servicers' costs, and some question how many consumers they will actually help.

While many of the lenders and investment firms seeking to profit from higher-risk mortgages are working to revive the business of bundling such loans into bonds, Citadel, one of the biggest players, is in no rush to see that happen.

The sale of real estate owned properties generated greater returns than short sales in December, according to Black Knight Financial Services.

When Seattle Mayor Ed Murray created a blue-ribbon panel on housing affordability in September, he used the word "urgency."

The Super Bowl is history, marking the start of a new high-stakes season: the spring real estate market. After what many industry insiders considered a disappointing 2014, hopes are high for 2015.