Servicing

Ginnie Mae issuers securitized $34.4 billion of government guaranteed residential mortgages in November, down 3% from the prior month.

The California Public Employees' Retirement System this week suspended its mortgage program, citing rising delinquencies and declining usage by its target audience: state workers. The program's administrator is Citigroup.

Fitch Ratings, citing "strong U.S. government support," Wednesday affirmed its long-term issuer default ratings on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at 'AAA.'

Differences in judicial and non-judicial foreclosures over the past several months have meant some securitized private-label subprime/alt-A mortgages made to borrowers in the what is still considered a relatively weak—though improving—California market, for example, are actually exhibiting better performance in some ways as a group than their counterparts in the relatively stronger New York market.

The decline in foreign investor holdings of agency mortgage-backed securities continued in October, contributing to an overall year-to-date decline through that time of $57 billion, according to a Credit Suisse strategist.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Des Moines, Iowa, is closing its wholesale lending operations center in Concord, Calif., saying it can get better efficiencies of scale by shifting the work to another wholesale loan processing center located in Irvine, Calif.

Legal actions tied to mortgage lending jumped by more than 40% in the third quarter based on the Mortgage Litigation Index report published this week.

Rising mortgage rates are starting to take their toll on new residential loan applications, according to figures released by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

CoreLogic reports that “the good news” about a third consecutive quarter decline in negative equity for residential properties is not so good after all. It warns that since these gains “primarily” due to foreclosures of severely negative equity properties, and not increases in home values, are not significant enough to positively impact the still-weak economy.

Mortgage positions were upset Tuesday as long-term rates acceleratedtheir climb in the wake of an agreement on an ambitious government stimulus plan -- a rate move that some said could have been worse if the Federal Reserve hadn't indicated it would continue its quantitative easing.