Servicing

Besides imposing a 5% risk retention requirement on securitizations by banks, the FDIC also spelled out new standards that are particularly tough and aimed solely at issuers of residential mortgage-backed securities.

Home prices have risen for four straight months, but the rate of growth has slowed, according to new figures tracked through the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller house price index.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has asked Ally Financial to freeze all home foreclosures within its borders, saying his office is investigating "defective" documents filed by the company and its mortgage division, GMAC.

Another top official has left the warehouse lending department of Southwest Securities FSB, leaving the Dallas-based bank with just two sales associates, and a declining book of business.

he Federal Housing Administration said it was responding to market demand when it started modifying its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage products. The result consists of several changes to the standard program; HECM Saver, a new option that requires lower upfront premiums; and new opportunity to use this affordable option as an REO disposition tool.

Federal regulators implicitly rebutted the view that banks are refusing to take losses on second mortgages that are current but at risk of default.

Starting January 1, FDIC-insured institutions will have to retain 5% of the credit risk on newly issued securitizations until the federal banking agencies approve new risk retention standards next year as mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act.

It was no small irony that moments after voting to bar corporate credit unions from investing in risky collateralized debt obligations, the NCUA Board gave its approval to a plan to shed as much as $50 billion in toxic mortgage-backed securities held by the corporate system by repackaging them for sale to the public as CDOs.

Re-default rates on HAMP modified loans are half the rate of other permanent modifications, according to second quarter servicing figures complied by the Office the Comptroller of the Currency and Office of Thrift Supervision.

The LPS Auction Solutions division of Lender Processing Services will conduct an online auction of 26 bank-foreclosed homes located nationwide with a bid deadline of Oct. 18.