Servicing

Tuesday was a bad day for mortgage stocks as investors switched their worries from the debt ceiling compromise to the overall economy, an attitude that took out most of the publicly traded mortgage related stocks as well.

Fannie Mae purchased $41.4 billion of home mortgages from its seller/servicers in June, its best purchase month of the second quarter, and a sign that originations in the primary market may be on the upswing.

Consumers who refinance are continuing to pay down their loans, at least in part, hoping to save thousands of dollars over the long haul, according to new figures compiled by Freddie Mac.

First Guaranty Mortgage Corp., McLean, Va., has rolled out its new line of products for underserved niches aimed at correspondent lenders.

Tied to the agency’s Servicing Success Program, Freddie Mac’s new ranking system took off this month replacing the traditional performance tiers with more realistic valuations that open the door for improved servicer activity reviews and planning of needed remedial action.The new monthly ranking of a servicer’s performance and company profile is based on points earned during the prior month. A ranking is unacceptable when the scorecard places the servicer in the bottom 25% of all ranked servicers—which is when Freddie will review potential corrective intervention.

The Mortgage Bankers Association fears that when the Federal Housing Finance Agency finally unveils its servicing fee structure proposal it will contain just one compensation model, and is appealing to the agency to include more.

A Trepp report shows in July the overall U.S. delinquency rate of commercial mortgage-backed security loans jumped to 9.88%, an all-time record increase of 51 basis points compared to June—which is largely attributed to technical changes in data reporting and analytics.

Radian Group Inc., Philadelphia, reported net income for the second quarter of $137 million, helped by widening spreads leading to a gain in fair value on its derivative portfolio of $194 million. One year prior, the company lost $475 million, due to a fair value charge of $588 million.

The mortgage operations at Ally Financial Inc. lost $127 million for the second quarter due to its legacy portfolio, down from profits of $34 million in the first quarter and $230 million for the second quarter 2010.

Recently as I chaired the SourceMedia Buying and Selling Distressed Mortgage Portfolios Forum in New York City, I was thinking about this huge market and how it hasn't quite opened up wide yet. But surely it is in the process of doing so.