Servicing

WASHINGTON–A top credit union executive urged Congress this morning to retain a government role in the secondary mortgage market, lest credit unions and other mortgage lenders be left at the mercy of a privatized secondary market dominated by a handful of bank giants.

Housing prices rose 0.7% in April, snapping eight straight months of declines, as home values increased in 13 of the 20 cities in the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller house price index.

Suspicious activity report filings involving mortgage fraud rose by 31% in the first quarter, largely as a result of the large number of repurchase demands by investors.

On a day when the stock market soared upwards, the three stand-alone mortgage insurers all saw their stock price drop. This is in apparent reaction to an article that appeared over the weekend in another publication.

Freddie Mac is upping its cash incentive for real estate agents to sell its foreclosure properties this summer.

Barclays Capital reports that June commercial mortgage-backed securities conduit liquidations hit the new high of more than 450 deals worth nearly $1.9 billion, an increase that bodes well for special servicers of these portfolios.

Freddie Mac has entered into a proposed settlement with creditors of the Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. bankruptcy that will allow the GSE to gain control of TBW-related mortgage servicing rights and $54 million in loan receipts in TBW deposits.

There are a number of new rules and regulations relating to mortgage lending that credit unions must track closely, or risk penalties, fines, or even civil or criminal liability.

In the first two of what promises to be several legal actions seeking compensation for the corporate credit union crisis, the National Credit Union Administration sued two of the biggest Wall Street banks last week seeking to recover losses from the now-toxic mortgage-backed securities they sold to four of the five failed corporates.

A court-appointed judicial hearing officer who previously had said e-mails sent between New York Insurance Department officials showed bias regarding the restructuring of bond insurer MBIA Insurance Corp. last week reversed his decision.