Servicing

The firm’s Mortgage Fraud Risk Report found that incidents of employment and income fraud increased 14% during 2011. This follows an upward trend seen over the last two years in which these fraud activities occurred 45% of the time.

The largest banks are charging relatively high interest rates to borrowers that qualify for a government refinance program, according to analysts, who say that the trend bodes well for mortgage profits in the second quarter.

Residential servicers completed 65,000 foreclosures in February, an 8% decline from the prior month and just about flat from the same period a year ago, according to new figures compiled by CoreLogic, Santa Ana, Calif.

Federal Reserve Board member Elizabeth Duke in a recent speech highlighted how the focus of government-assisted community development has shifted to preserving and disposing of existing housing from building new housing.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency will decide sometime in April whether the higher incentive fees the Treasury Department is paying are enough to justify allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to do principal reductions for the first time.

Bank servicers initiated more trial modification plans, and initiated fewer foreclosure actions in the fourth quarter than the previous one, according to a new report from the Comptroller of the Currency.

Stonegate Mortgage, Indianapolis, is looking to help banks deal with balance sheet volatility regarding mortgages, while at the same build its servicing portfolio. So it is starting a financial institutions channel to purchase loans on both a wholesale and correspondent basis.

Genworth Financial said its U.S. mortgage insurance unit is offering a relocation product with discounted MI premiums to help credit unions expand their market and pursue business from members relocated by corporate and military employers.

No single solution will repair the damage done by the lingering housing crisis. And “one-off” loan-by-loan solutions can’t happen fast enough to make an impact on the fragile housing stock that balances at a tipping point in cities across the country.

With the Federal Housing Finance Agency recently unveiling the first bulk offering of government-owned REO properties for investors to purchase and then sell the units to prospective buyers as rentals, Americans revealed that they continue to have dreams of someday owning a home.