Servicing

PHH Corp., Mt Laurel, N.J. is the only independent mortgage loan servicer that can internally generate new unpaid principal balances for its platform and thus its loan production unit can generate MSRs at a discount compared to the cost to purchase them, an analyst for Sterne Agee said.

MGIC is in discussions to sell its eMagic unit as well as its Myers Internet business, a company spokeswoman confirmed. The pair contributes minimal revenue to the company and it has made a strategic business decision to try and divest them, she said.

Freddie Mac said it will not dramatically discount its backlog of foreclosed homes, arguing that such steep price cuts could destroy the housing market.

The Senate Banking Committee last this week approved a bi-partisan bill to reform the National Flood Insurance Program, extending it out for five more years.

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.