Servicing

Primary-to-secondary mortgage market spread compression that has kept rates relatively low despite upward pressure from bond yields may be nearing its limit, according to one investment strategist.

People's United Bank, Bridgeport, Conn., late last week confirmed that warehouse lending veteran Paul Best has joined the publicly traded thrift as a senior vice president in its commercial division.

A California appeals court has dealt mortgage servicers another setback by letting a borrower pursue a fraud claim because she was promised a loan modification, but got pushed into foreclosure.

They've been called "braindead," "negligent," and "otiose." But some trustees of mortgage-backed securities are proving useful to investors after all in repurchase fights.

Mortgage-backed securities prepayment speeds in January held some surprises, including what some saw as an unexpected slowdown in relatively lower coupons.

Republican leaders on the House Financial Services Committee are keeping an eye on federal regulators as they consider attaching national servicing standards to a risk retention rule.

Bank of America late Friday said it would create a unit to handle 1.3 million distressed residential loans, many of which it inherited when it bought Countrywide Financial Corp. in August 2008.

The White House plan to revamp Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will mandate that the two charge higher guarantee fees over the next few years, and also will allow the GSE loan cap to fall back to $625,500 by the fall, according to Washington sources.

Commercial property values have fallen 42% from their peak in 2007 and there are roughly $1 trillion in underwater CRE loans maturing the next few years that could be difficult to refinance, according to a new report from Trepp, LLC.

Mortgage origination services and technology at Lender Processing Services generated annual and quarterly revenue gains in the fourth quarter of 2010, including a 31.8% spike in settlement services revenue. But LPS said its Loan Facilitation Services segment operates in a sector likely to see marketwide potential revenue dive nearly 30% in 2011.