Servicing

Credit-default swaps on Bank of America, the nation's largest residential servicer, this week surged to the highest level since April 2009 before paring those gains.

Home Loan Servicing Solutions Ltd., a newly formed Cayman Island corporation controlled by Ocwen CEO Bill Erby, plans to sell 18.3 million shares in its initial public offering, raising $316.3 million from investors.

Triad Guaranty Inc., the Winston-Salem-based mortgage insurer which is operating in run-off, lost $4.4 million during the second quarter, compared with net income of over $79 million one year prior.

Early Friday morning the mortgage banking industry had yet to learn who exactly bought Bank of America's $73 billion mortgage servicing portfolio with the bank declining to provide much in the way of details.

If there was ever any doubt that the mortgage market is in the midst of a restructuring, consider this: roughly $260 billion of mortgage servicing rights are currently up for grabs.

Michael Buttner, most recently head of residential mortgage-backed securities for Wells Fargo Securities, has been named managing director of the unit's bank strategies group.

NovaStar Financial Inc., a former high flyer in the subprime mortgage originations business now pursuing the appraisal niche and others, reported net earnings of $457,000 for the second quarter, up from $256,000 one year prior.

Prices of single-family homes fell almost 3% in the second quarter compared to the same period last year with distressed transactions accounting for 33% of existing home sales, according to new figures compiled by the National Association of Realtors.

Reverse Mortgage Solutions, a Houston-based originator and servicer of FHA Home Equity Conversion Mortgages, is starting a wholesale production channel for these loans.

The Federal Home Loan Bank System is seeking an exemption from pending risk retention rules so they can continue to provide risk-sharing mortgage programs that they claim have exhibited "superior credit performance" for more than a decade.