Servicing

Stonegate Mortgage Corp. has hired former Irwin Mortgage Corp. executive John F. Macke as EVP of capital markets in line with growth plans that include the introduction of nonagency jumbos this year.

After slowing for the end-of-year holidays, application volume increased by 4.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ended Jan. 6, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The results for the current survey as well as the previous survey include adjustments to account for the Christmas and New Year's Day holidays.

Although the final numbers have yet to be tallied for 2011, it appears that Hope Now servicers modified roughly 1 million loans for the year just ended - a huge decline from 2010 when 1.76 million mortgages were restructured.

WASHINGTON—Two senior Federal Reserve officials called on policymakers to take steps quickly to help ease the pain of the housing market to assist ongoing efforts to rescue the U.S. economy.

A married couple recently decided to merge their real estate asset management companies to form AthenianRazak.

National Mortgage News (December 19) asks, “Can Regulators Prevent the Next Systemic Risk Crisis?” Probably not.

The watch list of servicers supervised by the Federal Reserve and The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is not that long, but the number and types of requirements they need to abide to is and includes independent foreclosure reviews whose application deadline is ticking.

Michael Williams, the president and CEO of Fannie Mae, announced plans to step down as soon as a successor can be appointed, according to a company filing issued Tuesday to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Insurance giant MetLife, Inc. Tuesday afternoon shocked the market, saying it would exit the business of producing new “forward” residential loans through its residential lending division, MetLife Home Loans.

PHH, the nation's largest private mortgage company, has been notified by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that it is the subject of an investigation into potentially improper reinsurance payments.