Servicing

FBR Capital Markets late Friday said it has halted coverage of The PMI Group, Walnut Creek, Calif., the nation's second largest MI firm.

Agency mortgage-backed security prepayments continued to ramp up in the latest report but the increases generally came closer to matching expectations than the previous month.

Home prices fell 1.1% in September from the prior month and the outlook for the coming winter months – when sales tend to slow – are anything but positive, according to a new report from CoreLogic.

With the mortgage industry hyper-diligent about loan reporting these days, it is turning to technology to bring servicing operations in-house while achieving the same cost efficiencies that traditionally have been achieved via subservicing arrangements.

Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings is looking for evidence of potential improprieties at a controversial New York law firm that represents banks in foreclosure cases.

A large and aging pool of nonperforming mortgages continues to hang over the housing market despite loan modifications that have kept the serious delinquency rate from ballooning. However, the pace of loan restructurings has slowed by nearly 40% since last year and there are new fears that loans that have already been modified may default.

A decision to restore the $729,750 maximum loan limit on government-backed loans likely will be made by House and Senate leaders -- and not the appropriators, according to industry sources following the issue.

Residential servicers completed nearly 40,150 HAMP modifications in September, a 60% improvement from August, according to figures released by the U.S. Treasury Department.

The U.S. mortgage insurance business at Genworth Financial Inc., Richmond, Va., nearly halved its year-over-year loss in the third quarter as new flow delinquencies declined 14% from the previous year and new insurance written was up by 13% in the same timeframe.

American International Group, New York, reported a net loss of $4.1 million, which includes a $931 million decline in the fair market value of AIG's holdings in Maiden Lane III and a $43 million decline in the fair market value of its subsidiary SunAmerica's holdings in Maiden Lane II.