Servicing

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating several residential servicing shops for abusive practices – including inaccurate payment records and charging excessive fees -- according to FTC associate director Joel Winston.

With the fate of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac up in the air, credit unions should pool their resources to create an alternative entity that can handle securitization and other functions currently fulfilled by the two government-sponsored entities.

As the nation's largest banks are facing lawsuits and being investigated by attorneys general and other regulators, many of their servicing problems and abuses continue to hurt homeowners.

Among the ideas surfacing as the government works on interest rate and housing policy interventions aimed at bolstering the economy is a plan for financing bulk REO sales for renting to private investors that could be structured in a manner similar to TALF/PPIP, an approach some securities analysts said recently they are favoring.

LoopNet, a company that tracks all commercial real estate transactions nationwide including office, industrial, retail, multifamily, hotel, land, specialty properties and businesses for sale, has made changes to improve its database.

Foreclosure starts reached 217,955 units in August, an 18% sequential jump, and the first time since March that the reading was north of 200,000, according to new figures compiled by the Hope Now alliance.

Keystone Asset Management has recently completed an audit that assures the company is complying with regulations within the mortgage servicing industry.

Product and pricing engine NYLX is adding to its platform a Mortgage Harmony loan product that gives borrowers at certain times the option of lowering their rates to market level.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said there has been an 88% year-over-year increase in mortgage loan fraud suspicious activity reports filed in the second quarter.

Standard & Poor's, Moody's Corp. and Fitch Inc. won dismissal of a lawsuit alleging that their ratings of nonprime MBS were faulty and caused five Ohio public employee pension funds to buy into these money-losing investments.