Servicing

Fannie Mae's chief economist is warning that the United States has a 40% chance of slipping into a double-dip recession in 2012.

The Senate over the weekend added an increase in FHA premiums to the payroll tax bill, passing the measure by an overwhelming margin of 89-10.

Tom Palmer, a senior executive in the correspondent lending division of MetLife Home Loans, recently left the company, accepting a position with the privately held Freedom Mortgage Corp., Fishers, Ind., according to industry officials familiar with the matter.

Residential lenders issued $28.4 billion of Government National Mortgage Association-backed MBS in November, a 7% gain from the previous month, according to new figures issued by the agency.

Redwood Trust said it is currently seeing a very robust pipeline of potential CMBS transactions.

Members of a House Financial Services subcommittee are at odds over how to address conflict of interest issues involving the servicing of first and second mortgages.

The storm surge of foreclosed properties on bank books shows little indication of ebbing, and institutions continue to be drowned by it.

A funny thing happened on the way to the mortgage correction: while residential debt outstanding has been declining steadily for well over a year, subservicing contracts have increased - handsomely.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, told investors at the beginning of 2011 that potential repurchases of private-label mortgage securities are "not that material" for his bank - an assertion that increasingly appears to be in doubt.

Residential delinquencies rose to 8.15% at the end of November, an almost 3% increase from the prior month, according to new figures compiled by Lender Processing Services, Jacksonville, Fla.