Servicing

The long-running negotiations on a settlement between large mortgage servicers and the state attorneys general have been dragging on too long.

The Treasury Department late Friday unveiled a new plan to expand the Home Affordable Modification Program by increasing the incentive fees it pays investors -- including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- for agreeing to reduce the principal amount of a mortgage.

The lending industry's troubles with a controversial type of insurance coverage appear to be spreading to new areas. In recent weeks New York State's Department of Financial Services has issued subpoenas to more than 20 mortgage servicers, a dozen insurers and 20 affiliated insurance agencies, according to someone familiar with the investigation.

I watched the State of the Union speech Tuesday and came away thinking no real "mortgage" surprises tonight except for two: Obama not using the word "mortgage broker" once, and the formation of the DOJ fraud task force on securitizing loans. But what about the "The State of the Mortgage Union"?

Many prominent names in the reverse mortgage business have left in the past year, for the most part scared away by issues associated with the servicing of these loans.

Investors considering nonperforming loan purchases are increasingly concerned about title chains and finding related concerns that need to be cleaned up, according to a new manager at one vendor in this business.

The serious delinquency rate on the Federal Housing Administration's $1 trillion single-family loan portfolio edged closer to 10% in December as the pace of originations slowed in the fourth quarter.

Compliance and documentation go together like education and success. And, the latter is even more determined today by finding the missing pieces in the transaction chain.

Fannie Mae's latest housing forecast is in, and it predicts a stagnant mortgage market for the next two years, at about $1 trillion in originations for each of 2012 and 2013. Not what industry officials want to hear, especially after five rocky years starting in 2007.

Residential mortgages originated over the past two years are "among the best quality originations" on record, according to a new report from Lender Processing Services.