Servicing

Recent operational risk downgrades of various mega-servicers of securitized residential mortgage loans by Fitch Ratings indicate the agency is staying true to its resolution to start a new era in mortgage banking evaluations. It appears to involve more frequent updates of rating criteria.

Dave Lowman, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase’s residential mortgage unit for almost five years, is stepping down, according to a statement issued by the company.

MountainView Servicing Group is brokering a $188 million package of Government National Mortgage Association servicing rights for an undisclosed seller.

The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance this week filed a cease and desist order against DBD Results LLC, Scottsdale Ariz., prohibiting the firm from conducting business within the state.

REITs certainly don’t have the presence in the residential mortgage market they did before the downturn but according to a Keefe, Bruyette & Woods report last week, there are still a good 15 publicly traded ones out there, some of which investors may want to keep an eye on in terms of their potential ability become bigger contenders in the space.

RealEC has rolled out a service that offers lenders the ability to push quality control from the closing table earlier in the process, with loan-level reviews during the origination process.

The housing market won't begin to stabilize for at least two more years, the executive in charge of consumer and home equity lending initiatives at Lender Processing Services said at an industry conference in Orlando. But it could be two years or more after that for the market to return to "normal."

A top regional official from the investigative arm of HUD said Bank of America "significantly hindered" a federal investigation of the megaservicer’s foreclosure practices, according to a report from Dow Jones.

Regulators have extended the deadline for the top 14 mortgage servicers to submit action plans required under consent orders issued in April.

Housing affordability pressure combined with tightening rental housing markets “may begin to lead a modest recovery” in housing construction this year, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University’s “State of the Nation’s Housing 2011” report.