Servicing

Two high ranking Democratic congressmen plan to hold a hearing later this month in Chicago to highlight the failure of mortgage servicers to adequately maintain foreclosed properties.

In the rollercoaster world of bank owned properties, now might be the time when the ride starts to take a drastic turn. Many analysts projected 2011 as the year when the backlog of foreclosure cases would hit the market, but this did not occur, leading to a lot of speculation about the future of these properties heading into 2012.

Servicing technology has both progressed significantly and become obsolete, at least in the view of Dave Vida, a mortgage industry veteran of more than 20 years who, like most of his peers, is eyeing what to do next.

PHH Corp., which this week ousted its CEO amid perceived liquidity concerns, may start selling some of its huge holdings of mortgage servicing rights, according to industry analysts.

Delinquencies on home equity lines of credit rose a scant 2 basis points in the third quarter to 1.93%, according to new figures compiled by the American Bankers Association.

The 30 days-plus delinquency rate for U.S. commercial real estate loans in CMBS climbed seven basis points to 9.58% in December, according to Trepp LLC.

Did perceived liquidity problems at PHH Corp. lead to this week's ouster of company president and CEO Jerry Selitto? I'm told that PHH doesn't have any liquidity problems and the company said as much in a recent SEC filing.

Quick regulation is rarely great regulation. This will ultimately prove true for Single Point of Contact (SPOC) as well. The idea of a single individual as liaison for a borrower looking to avoid default is a brilliant core concept if the only problem is to simplify the process of navigating the “waterfall” of options currently available.

President Obama's recess appointment of Richard Cordray on Wednesday will clear the way for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to use its full enforcement and regulatory powers to police all mortgage lenders and servicers.

NewDay Financial LLC, Fulton, Md., has changed its identity to NewDay USA LLC. The USA part of the name looks to call attention to the company from its primary target markets as a Veterans Administration lender and Federal Housing Administration forward and reverse mortgage originator, company management said.