Servicing

Mortgage companies continued to pare back their payrolls in August as lenders cut 2,800 full-time employees during the month, following 1,900 layoffs in July.

The Obama Administration's efforts to expand a GSE refinancing program and reach a large number of underwater borrowers will depend on how far the Federal Housing Finance Agency will go in providing lenders relief from loan buy-backs, according to industry officials and analysts watching the effort.

Fearing that the megabanks might get off too easy in the multi-state mortgage settlement talks, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is preparing to file lawsuits against the nation's largest servicers for wrongfully foreclosing on customers.

Fannie Mae, to date, has always seemed more aggressive than Freddie Mac in pressing major lenders to repurchase problem loans. Fannie has continually ratcheted up its requests for servicers to buy back loans, while Freddie has reduced its requests over the past four consecutive quarters.

Fitch Ratings has found more than one-third of loans underlying prime private-label mortgage-backed securities are now underwater, and it could get even worse.

Three quarters of commercial real estate executives surveyed by KPMG LLC said distressed real estate would have an impact on their investment strategies over the next 12 months.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D., Md., ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, and other members of Congress are set to meet with GSE regulator Ed DeMarco Thursday afternoon to discuss President Obama's yet-to-be released refinancing plan.

An analyst for FBR Capital Markets thinks Walter Investment Management could see the servicing rights for more loans coming to it from the Bank of America/Fannie Mae transaction.

GMAC Mortgage LLC, Fort Washington, Pa., and Loan Value Group, Rumson, N.J., have partnered in an effort to provide cash incentive rewards to certain VA borrowers who are under water on their loans, make timely and consistent payments on their mortgages and meet other criteria.

Servicers completed only 25,400 HAMP modifications in August -- the lowest number of monthly completions this year, according to new figures released by the Treasury Department.