Servicing

Although President Obama Thursday night made a slight reference to a government-backed refi plan for troubled mortgagors, the effort appears to be temporarily stalled over concerns about what effect it would have on both MBS investors and the megabanks, according to advisors and trade group sources who claim to have knowledge of the program.

As federal funds for credit counseling dry up Wells Fargo & Co. is channeling $12.4 million to counsel distressed borrowers, increasing this year's commitment to national and local counseling agencies by 35%.

GNMA president Ted Tozer has a problem and it goes like this: over the past 18 months the agency has approved 60 new firms to issue government-backed mortgage securities, but few are actually issuing. He'd like to change that.

Americans are expressing their highest levels of pessimism regarding the housing market and the economy in general, according to Fannie Mae's August National Housing Survey.

Continuing economic uncertainty contributed to fixed-rate mortgages falling to their lowest interest rate levels ever, according to the latest Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

Jane C. King, the Queen of renovation lending, will head up Platinum Home Mortgage Corp.'s new correspondent lending division as division vice president.

Congress wanted to create a large category of high quality residential mortgages that would be exempt from risk retention and easily securitized – but banking regulators have taken the opposite approach, according to Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.

Nationstar Mortgage, Lewisville, Texas, is contemplating making a bid for Bank of America's correspondent lending division, or at least parts of it, according to industry advisors who claim to have knowledge of the matter.

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.