Servicing

A $70-million lawsuit against Bank of America and one of its executives in Florida illustrates how negligence and mortgage banking procedure oversight complaints can lead to a very costly chain of litigation action.

Calling his first meeting with GSE regulator Edward DeMarco "disappointing," the chairman of a House task force on housing stabilization wants more answers from the regulator - plus he wants to see the agency's national refinancing plan before it's announced publicly.

National Creditors Connections Inc., Lake Forest, Calif., is in a hiring mode, tripling its loss mitigation staff to 65 full-timers since January.

The credit quality of commercial mortgage-backed securities loans appears to be slipping a bit, according to a Moody's Investors Service report Friday.

MGIC Investment Corp., the nation's largest mortgage insurer, posted a net loss of $165 million in the third quarter while revenue and new policies written continued to slide amid a depressed housing market.

Residential delinquencies fell to 8.09% in September, a slight decline from the prior month but an almost 13% improvement from the same month a year ago, according to new "First Look" figures compiled by Lender Processing Services.

When it comes to the mortgage and housing bust don't blame ARMs. The proliferation of adjustable rate mortgages – and payment shock – during the boom years was not a major cause of the foreclosure crisis in this nation, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston economist Paul Willen told a Congressional panel Thursday.

The Senate late Thursday approved an amendment to restore the $729,750 maximum loan limit on government-back mortgages for two more years.

Nine subservicing firms this week received approval to handle loans underlying Bank of America-owned Countrywide RMBS as part of a proposed $8.5 billion settlement.

Annual sales of existing homes and condos in Florida increased 10% in September indicating an upswing trend that started to become apparent in January may continue.