Servicing

Fannie Mae this week opened a mortgage help center in Ontario, Calif., and now operates a dozen centers nationwide that provide free education and counseling servicers to struggling homeowners.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has taken its first civil action, suing and effectively stopping business at a Los Angeles law firm that charged homeowners for loan modifications that allegedly never happened.

Fannie Mae reported that loan commitments hit $81.7 billion in June, up 13% from the month prior.

Radian and most mortgage insurers consider HAMP transactions a modification of existing coverage and do not include it in new policies written.

From 2007 to 2011, more than 1.5 million older Americans lost their homes as a result of the mortgage crisis.

Recently we heard of a West Coast REO auction where one investor arrived in a hotel ballroom (where the event was being held) with body guards and $40 million worth of cashier checks.

Barclays Capital, Citigroup Global Markets, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank Securities were among the winning bidders for the sale of roughly $4.5 billion of additional assets from the Maiden Lane III portfolio.

Ally Financial Inc. lost $898 million in the second quarter, blaming its troubled (and bankrupt) mortgage banking division, Residential Capital Corp., for its problems.

Servicers of securitized commercial mortgage loans beware of the still-elevated delinquency rates.

Freddie Mac is extending its streamline refinancing program to mortgages with loan-to-value ratios of 80% or less, bringing its Home Affordable Refinancing Program in line with Fannie Mae’s.