Servicing

Banks are doing what they can to avoid depressing home prices, by focusing on reducing foreclosures rather than flooding the market with their backlog of properties, according to CoreLogic chief economist Mark Fleming.

Citigroup, a somewhat frequent seller of nonperforming loans, is in the market with a $99 million package of troubled residential mortgages, according to investors that have looked at the package.

Umpqua Holdings in Portland, Ore., continues to ramp up in commercial real estate lending at a time when many other banks are shying away from the sector.

The Home Affordable Refinancing Program is not giving perks to the right borrower.

The days of mortgage companies embarking on large, expensive and open-ended information technology projects are long gone and executives are focusing their efforts on smaller-scale projects that produce faster results, according to a panel at the Mortgage Bankers Association Commercial/Multifamily Servicing and Technology Conference this week in Dallas.

Encore Capital Group, a business that buys portfolios of consumer debt, announced that it purchased tax refinancer Propel Financial Services this month for $187 million.

It is no surprise that the law of supply and demand drives costs upward or downward depending on the trajectory of the major component. The same principle holds true in the rental market.

Now, the CFPB will step-in and investigate reports of non-compliant mortgage servicing companies, and possibly enforce hefty fines.

Bank of America is in the market with a $2 billion package of mortgage servicing rights tied to loans that reside in private-label securitizations, according to bidders and investors briefed on the package.

Washington is squeezing small banks and chasing off the private equity investors who could help them, financier Wilbur Ross says.