Servicing

The Federal Reserve's pledge on Tuesday afternoon to keep short-term rates low through 2013 should sustain relatively favorable mortgage market conditions for quite some time.

Everyone is fighting for their own.Progress in the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act’s “key customer and investor protections” are threatened by efforts of industry groups to weaken the rules and stop the funding of the agencies responsible for making those reforms a reality—at least in the view of the Consumer Federation of America.

The ongoing crisis-related confrontation between state regulators mitigating customer rights and trade organizations vouching for the mortgage industry continues to generate new regulatory updates that increase the foreclosure backlog.

Sand Canyon Corp., a subsidiary of H&R Block that holds the remnants of the Option One Mortgage business, will pay a $10 million settlement to Massachusetts and institute a loan modification program providing an estimated $115 million of additional relief to consumers.

Walter Investment Management, the proud new owner of Green Tree Servicing, posted a $3.4 million loss in the second quarter, after booking $9 million of transaction costs related to the deal.

Data show mortgage servicers are not meeting their customers’ expectations. And negative brand image perceptions may further deteriorate as disheartened borrowers cannot take advantage of historically low interest rates and see no clear housing and overall economic recovery in sight.

The historic downgrade of the U.S. government's credit rating is raising the question of whether similar actions may be in store for the country's largest banks, which also control a lion's share of the residential servicing business.

Fannie Mae, in a new quarterly filing, says it is receiving "higher amounts" from lenders on loan repurchase requests while its pipeline of buyback claims on defaulted mortgages continues to grow.

Freddie Mac posted a $2.1 billion loss in the second quarter after booking large credit and derivatives charges.

As the stock prices of the big banks cratered on Monday, particularly for Bank of America, pundits and industry observers began worrying that a second financial crisis was in the offing, including the possibility of the failure of a large financial institution.