Servicing

When foreclosure and short sales are excluded from the CoreLogic home price index, it shows that values declined just 0.6% over the 12 months ending November 30.

Investors holding at least $800 million of secured bonds in Residential Capital Corp. have organized in the event the mortgage firm's parent company, Ally Financial, throws the company into bankruptcy.

Thanks to the Dodd-Frank Act, mortgage servicers will continue to have their hands full this year.

New York Fed President William Dudley stressed the need to take forceful action to aid the real estate market, which has been a drag on the economy, but stopped short of offering a silver bullet solution, in a speech before the New Jersey Bankers Association Friday.

After months of waiting as their counterparts began examining banks, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's nonbank supervision team began the enormous task Thursday of overseeing the rest of the consumer financial sector.

Perfect Circle Credit Union in Richmond, Ind. is piloting a different method of disposing of the REO houses it obtains in foreclosure, by fixing them up, furnishing them and making them available in a rent-to-own sale.

More distressed homeowners are actively pursuing solutions to their financial needs, a promising 2011 trend expected to continue this year. And their starting point is the Web.

Macy's announced last week that it will close some of its stores, while opening and replacing others. But Harris Trifon, Deutsche Bank Securities' global head of commercial real estate debt research, said that in terms of CMBS, "the impact of the announcement will be minimal."

We heard an interesting one the other day and it goes like this: Supposedly, auditors were giving one bank servicer a hard time because foreclosure notaries that worked for the bank did not physically see their co-worker sign the documents.

Advocates for Consumer Affairs, a compliance and risk management firm that audits mortgage loans nationwide, said it plans to concentrate their efforts to make sure homeowners receive loans that are enforceable from financial institutions.