Servicing

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is on the verge of filing a barrage of civil claims against investment banking firms that packaged nonprime loans into mortgage-backed securities while misrepresenting the quality of the underlying collateral, according to a new published report.

Four million more borrowers with high LTV loans could be refinanced if certain impediments to the Home Affordable Refinance Program are corrected, according to Federal Reserve Board governor Elizabeth Duke.

The Federal Reserve Thursday afternoon slapped Goldman Sachs with an enforcement action, saying its Litton Loan Servicing division engaged in a "pattern of misconduct" tied to robo-signings.

The Federal Reserve might start purchasing agency mortgage-backed securities again if the Obama administration can cobble together an effective program to refinance Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guaranteed loans, according to a new report from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

Nonprime lender/servicer Springleaf Financial late Wednesday priced a $242 million nonprime residential MBS, at a yield of 4%, according to market reports.

Goldman Sachs & Co. can complete the sale of its mortgage servicing subsidiary to Ocwen Financial Corp. now that the parties have agreed to a settlement with the New York superintendent of banks over alleged abusive services practices, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

MountainView Servicing Group, Denver, is auctioning off a $485 million portfolio of mortgage servicing rights backed by Fannie Mae loans.

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%.