Servicing

Many fondly recall their kindergarten years. The teachers had a supernatural power to transform children into students while also starting the learning process of basic life skills. Interestingly, many of these kindergarten lessons are just as important for financial services executives today, even more so for mortgage bankers going through tough times.

With online listing, vacancies, a flush of foreclosed properties and a sour economy, REO assets have become a hotbed for criminal activity. Everything from prostitution to copper stripping has been reported in areas with high foreclosure rates. Once a property becomes vacant, it can easily fall prey to criminal infiltration and become a real liability for an entire community.

Dealing with residential servicing issues is nothing new for Richard Cordray, the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The former Ohio attorney general says he has been "wrestling with servicing problems" for many years.

President Obama announced Tuesday night a plan to collect fees from large banks to help fund greater loan refinancings for underwater mortgagors.

The Federal Reserve’s 26-page white paper has generated a lot of commentary, both pro and con, since being released on Jan. 4. While others spend time and energy debating whether or not it’s the role of the Fed to comment on or recommend policy, I find the content itself far more interesting.

Rumors abound that the Federal Reserve is planning a new round of 'quantitative easing' as early as this spring.

MountainView Servicing Group, Denver, is brokering a $129 million package of servicing rights guaranteed by the Government National Mortgage Association.

The nation's largest mortgage insurer, MGIC Investment Corp., posted yet another large loss in the fourth quarter, $135 million, but managed to obtain an operating waiver from the Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner, as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

With financial regulatory policy a major issue in an election year, topics like a pending mortgage settlement and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could get strong billing in Tuesday's State of Union.

Recently we heard that the FDIC unloaded a $900 million pool of nonperforming and troubled notes, but the agency failed to release a press release on the deal. (It was a structured finance transaction.) In November 2010 the FDIC sold a $23 billion package of MSRs tied to the failed AmTrust Bank. No press release was issued on that deal either.