Servicing

The Mortgage Bankers Association's annual convention was set for Orlando in 2005. So far, so good. I'd been to a million meetings in Orlando, and here was one more. The trouble was, Florida was also set for a visit at the same time by a monster hurricane named Wilma.

The mortgage division of Ally Financial Inc., originated $16.5 billion of new loans in the fourth quarter, a small gain from 3Q, but a 29% drop from the same period in 2011, according to new figures released Thursday morning.

Home sales in some of our nation’s hardest hit markets are showing signs of recovery. This is great news for the industry, especially if estimates are true and we still have years’ worth of housing industry that has yet to reach the market.

There is vast speculation among many real estate analysts that short sales will be very prevalent this year as delinquencies and foreclosures continue to be a major problem throughout the country.

With Bank of America shedding mortgage servicing rights en masse, and a handful of other megabanks writing down their MSRs because of Basel III, prepayments and other concerns, one might think that the asset must stink to high heaven. Well, think again.

As might be expected, the American Bankers Association is none-too-thrilled with a new White House plan to tax banks to pay for a new government refinancing program.

Suzanne Ball, president of America's Infomart, a field services company based in Dallas, plans to be at the MBA National Mortgage Servicing Conference to check the pulse of her peers on loan information security issues.

President Obama is urging Congress to pass a bank tax, funneling the money over to the Federal Housing Administration which will then refinance non-GSE borrowers who are under water on their loans.

December was the best month of 2011 in terms of primary new mortgage insurance written by the current membership of the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is preparing to back away from a controversial plan to overhaul the 25 basis point minimum servicing fee paid on Fannie Mae and Freddie loans, after intense, across-the-board industry opposition to the idea.