Servicing

Freddie Mac has engaged for the first time two rating agencies to provide conventional public ratings in conjunction with its “K” certificates as part of its first multifamily deal of this type in 2011.

Rick Beckwitt has been promoted to president of Lennar Corp., replacing Stuart Miller, who retains the chief executive title. He had been the executive vice president.

Mortgage firms initiated a record 3.8 million in foreclosure-related actions in 2010, including filing notices of default, scheduling auctions, and repossessing homes according to new figures released by RealtyTrac, Irvine, Calif.

Despite reports to the contrary, Rep. Scott Garrett says Republicans still intend to privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after a suitable transition.

Recovery in the housing market, and the economy at large, is dependent on what the government does — and doesn't do — to influence the recuperation, according to a panel of economic observers at a real estate conference in New York.

Fortress Investment Group LLC named managing director and securitized portfolio products manager Greg Finck to head a newly created mortgage and ABS portfolio strategies team within the firm's asset management unit

J.I. Kislak, Inc., Miami Lakes, said it inked a deal to buy three distressed multifamily properties from Ocean Bank of Miami. No purchase price was disclosed.

Housing and mortgage trade groups are concerned that federal regulators will propose a narrow exemption to MBS risk retention rules that would impose high capital requirements on plain vanilla mortgages, making them unnecessarily expensive for creditworthy borrowers.

It’s been said of the housing crisis that the faster banks and the GSEs unload their REO properties the quicker markets will recover with prices rising once again.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are considering overhauling the 25-basis-point servicing fee they pay to mortgage banking firms that process their loans, according to a report in American Banker.