Servicing

Examiners from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may look the same, but they won't necessarily see the same. The bureau is employing many of the same examiners -- and similar methods -- that the banking regulators have used for years to conduct exams, according to the CFPB's supervision and examination manual released last week.

Bank of America marked down the asset value of its residential servicing portfolio by a stunning 36% in the third quarter, but managed to post mortgage banking income of $1.8 billion during the period.

CitiMortgage and HUD's Office of Inspector General are at loggerheads over the proper way to vet at-risk borrowers for the Federal Housing Administration's short sales program.

A new collaboration between FICO and CoreLogic, two of the nation’s largest risk scoring data providers, plans to upgrade existing mortgage credit risk scoring models and consequently pave the way for broader access to multiscore rating benchmarks.

Citigroup reported a 50% jump in residential mortgage originations in the third quarter along with a large writedown related to mortgage servicing rights.

Historically low interest rates sparked an increase in refinance mortgage applications that helped Wells Fargo originate $89 billion in new residential loans during the third quarter of 2011. But troubled existing loans continue to impact results, with a 61% increase in Wells Fargo's mortgage repurchase provision.

Standard & Poor's today cut its projection of U.S. CMBS issuance in 2012 to $35 billion from $45 billion. That would translate to flat growth from this year's estimate. The agency reduced its forecast thanks to three consecutive months of rising spreads, an uncertain economic outlook and a slowdown in origination by lenders.

Master servicers have been instrumental in dealing with the robosigning debacle in existing securitization deals, said participants at Information Management Network's ABS East Conference on Sunday.

The question of what should be done with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is drawing wildly different opinions.

Loan servicer C-III Capital Partners LLC has committed to put $10 million into commercial real estate services firm Grubb & Ellis Co., by investing in a line of credit issued earlier this year by Colony Capital LLC.