Servicing

Lenders should face penalties for violating representation and warranty clauses — beyond their obligation to re-purchase the loans — according to an expert in managing risk on mortgage-backed securities.

Capacity issues — in terms of the number of reliable bodies available to take mortgage loan applications — is a key reason why the loan brokerage sector will survive, attendees of the MBA convention in Atlanta were told Monday morning.

It's time for mortgage originators to draw a line in the sand when it comes to being forced to buy back loans from investors, an industry veteran said at the Mortgage Bankers Association's annual convention in Atlanta.

Robo-signers and foreclosure mills perpetrating fraud on the courts. Bond investors questioning the contents of mortgage-backed security trusts. Challenges to banks' legal standing. These problems, once viewed as isolated or inconsequential, have been conflated into a monster supposedly capable of paralyzing foreclosures and obscuring the rightful ownership of real estate nationwide.

The Mortgage Bankers Association has declared that the "punitive" penalties the Department of Housing and Urban Development charges servicers for failing to initiate foreclosures on a timely basis are "arbitrary in their severity" and need to be changed.

Sales of existing homes rose 10% sequentially in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.53 million units, but were down 19% compared to the same month a year ago, according to figures compiled by the National Association of Realtors.

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank is "looking intensively" at the foreclosure and servicing practices of the nation's largest banks to see if these institutions are improperly taking homes.

Builders nationwide have complained they can't compete with sales of distressed homes. But a Tempe, Ariz., outfit is using the drawbacks associated with buying foreclosed homes to fight back.

Ginnie Mae issuers securitized a near record $413 billion of government-guaranteed residential loans in fiscal year 2010, according to figures released Friday afternoon.

Even the American Civil Liberties Union is weighing in on the foreclosure crisis, questioning whether some homeowners are having their constitutional rights violated and being unlawfully removed from their homes.