Servicing

The Department of Housing and Urban Development this week rescinded a controversial mortgagee letter that held homeowners or their heirs responsible for repaying, in full, a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage if they wished to keep the property.

Provisions of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation that will be enforced by the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will change many mortgage servicer practices, according to a panel of compliance attorneys speaking on the closing day of the SourceMedia Mortgage Servicing Conference in Dallas.

Residential servicers completed 60,900 proprietary modifications in February, down 15% from the prior month, as delinquencies and restructuring activity slowed, according to new figures released by the Hope Now alliance.

To maintain an important inducement for mortgage putbacks, Freddie Mac has warned its seller-servicers to stop cutting side deals with mortgage insurers.

Although lawmakers were ostensibly supposed to debate ways to overhaul the structure and authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a hearing Wednesday in a House Financial Services subcommittee was sidetracked by questions over whether the agency should exist at all.

Many of the nation's largest residential servicers — the subject of an intense federal audit that commenced last fall — have signed consent agreements to take corrective actions with regard to the processing of foreclosures and loan modifications, according to sources familiar with the matter.

National servicing standards "are clearly doable" according to New York Banking superintendent Richard Neiman, but the Empire State's top regulator says a lack of cooperation between the states and federal regulators is hobbling the effort.

A House Financial Services Subcommittee Wednesday approved eight separate bills to reform and downsize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae.

Patriot National Bancorp announced the sale of nonperforming assets and the closure of four of its branches.

Marshall Hotels & Resorts Inc. has signed contracts to manage three hotels and was also appointed to become the receivership for another resort.