Servicing

Icon Residential, Irvine, Calif., recently pulled the plug on its plans to enter the correspondent lending channel, laying off roughly 120 full-time employees at the unit and a related division.

Some of the largest mortgage servicers are still fabricating documents that should have been signed years ago and submitting them as evidence to foreclose on homeowners.

Fannie Mae bought $39.4 billion of home mortgages from its seller/servicers in July, a 5% decline from the previous month. But compared to the same month a year ago the GSE's acquisitions fell 26%.

Radian Guaranty executive Camillo Melchiorre will leave his post as senior vice president of loss management to serve as president and CEO of mortgage technology nonprofit Hope LoanPort, effective Sept. 1.

The Securities and Exchange Commission believes that mortgage real estate investment trusts are beginning to look more like mutual funds and has initiated a review of their exemption from the Investment Company Act.

Home prices rose in July for the fourth consecutive month, according to CoreLogic, which tracks the market through its house price index.

Bank of America is hiring financial advisors, including mortgage specialists, as it expands its network of high tech "specialty stores" for customers with $50,000 to $250,000 in "investable assets."

Lender Processing Services is now marketing its hybrid valuation service to owners of distressed property portfolios as an alternative to traditional broker price opinions.

Nationwide sales of homes in some stage of foreclosure or bank-owned status in the second quarter this year accumulated for 31% of all residential sales, according to RealtyTrac.

As the government makes changes to servicing regulations and short-sale fraud lawsuits continue to linger in the wake of the robo-signing scandal, Woodward Asset Capital is adapting to the ongoing changes to help lenders with their asset disposition strategies.