Servicing

Mortgage Industry Advisory Corp. recently closed two bulk servicing deals with $2.36 billion in receivables changing hands, another sign that the secondary market for these contracts is showing some signs of life.

A new business process management software creates rules and checklists for servicers to ensure the cases they take to foreclosure meet compliance guidelines—technology that developer Pegasystems says protects servicers and lien holders from faulty foreclosure processes and speeds up the time it takes a property to transfer to real estate owned status.

Long-term rate-indicative Treasury yields, which have been generally trending higher recently, broke into yet another higher range Tuesday afternoon.

Most people tend to agree that the future of financial service exchanges is in a virtual marketplace. What has never been very clear so far is how fast it will happen and who will turn out to be the primary drivers of that switch: the banks or the customers they serve.A survey conducted by Fiserv Inc. showed 11% of online consumers are currently connected with their bank or credit union through a social site while up to 36% of those not yet connected through those sites expressed interest in doing just that.

Mortgage rates will steadily rise in 2011, according to Freddie Mac's chief economist Frank Nothaft, and refinancing activity will slow as the year progresses.

Freddie Mac plans to start making available more timely and detailed monthly pool-level delinquency disclosures on its mortgage-backed participation certificate and Giant PC securities in a move the government-sponsored enterprise said might aid market participants in modeling prepayment speeds.

The Rural Housing Service is tightening its indemnification policies to improve compliance with its lending guidelines.

Experts called mortgage securities’ prepayment speeds relatively tame in the latest month but some did respond to lower rates.

There have been some relative improvements seen in commercial mortgage-backed securities delinquencies recently but also some continuing concerns, suggesting that market—while improving in some respects—still could have some hurdles to clear before it bottoms out.

Don Curtis has departed as national sales manager for Franklin Credit Management, Jersey City, N.J., accepting a position with Carrington Mortgage Services, a privately held specialty servicer.