Servicing

As if there were not enough considerations for investors sizing up the many distressed mortgage asset-backed securities still out there, it looks now like they should also take into account growing momentum in municipal efforts to get securities trusts and servicers to pay for distressed property upkeep or face fines.

As settlement talks continue between the states and the megabanks over the robosigning scandal, some of the nation's largest servicers fear they may have a new item to add to their worry list: civil liability tied to the monthly processing of Federal Housing Administration loans.

The Collingwood Group Wednesday announced that it has hired industry veteran Tom Cronin as a managing director of the firm.

The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency is scheduled to sell $81.4 million of single-family mortgage revenue bonds on Thursday after a one-day retail period.

Some struggling development districts around Omaha have turned to Chapter 9 bankruptcy as a way to restructure debt as they wait out an ailing housing market.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is pushing back against claims that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were sophisticated investors that should have done a better job of vetting their purchases of mortgage-backed securities.

A New Jersey mortgage broker has been charged with submitting false information to qualify for 13 multifamily loans with the help of a loan coordinator at Paragon Federal Credit Union, Montvale, N.J.

With unemployment rates remaining at high levels and foreclosures continuing to be a prominent problem nationwide, real estate analysts have suggested that borrowers should consider a loan modification to prevent them from losing their property.

For the third time in the last four months, Trepp said the delinquency rate for commercial mortgage-backed securities has dropped.

As the summer home buying season winds down, auction companies are continuing to sell distressed properties in September.