Servicing

The mortgage division of Wells Fargo & Co., funded $120 billion of new home mortgages in the fourth quarter – three-times the volume of its closest competitor JPM Morgan Chase, according to figures released Tuesday morning.

For the "information junkie" who anxiously searches for any glimmer of an economic recovery, 2012 may prove to be a classic "good news-bad news" scenario. If you follow the news feeds, there is definitely no shortage of stories to bolster the position that the housing market is still a mess.

First, some good news: We understand that 350 MetLife Home Loan staffers are about to be made an employment offer. On top of that, other offers are being made to many of MLHL's high-performance loan officers. That's good news for the rank-and-file workers that make up this industry.

Radian Guaranty has received waivers of the risk-to-capital ratio in four states of the 16 states it applied to, and has been rejected by two, the company said.

JPMorgan Chase chairman and chief executive Jamie Dimon suspects a "turn" in the housing market is getting closer but a recovery may still be years away.

When it comes to finding an advantage to using social media to market your REO assets while still managing all the other associated tasks, it can be a real challenge.

Due to more stringent government loan requirements and increased oversight by regulators, small servicers have experienced problems with traditional subservicers. These problems include high delinquency ratios under Ginnie Mae, high FHA curtailments, low loss mitigation workout ratios and challenges with conveying properties to FHA.

After the federal government recently announced that it plans on launching a pilot program in the first quarter this year to sell Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Federal Housing Administration REO homes in bulk to investors, two California companies have decided not to wait to develop their own rental platform.

Although insurance conglomerate MetLife failed to unload its residential mortgage banking business, it is moving forward with a plan to sell its profitable warehouse lending division, according to industry officials briefed on the matter.

JPMorgan Chase suffered a residential repurchase loss of $390 million in the fourth quarter, a 17% increase from the year earlier period, and a sign that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other secondary market investors are not easing up on their buyback demands.