Servicing

Online auction house Countdown To Buy, Bethel, Conn., has entered into its first private label deal, signing on Diamante Cabo San Lucas, a high-end golf resort.

The Federal Housing Administration is bringing together lenders and investors at a Sept. 29 meeting to ensure that its new FHA short refinance program does not stumble like other attempts to address negative equity and strategic defaults.

GMAC Mortgage, the fifth largest residential servicer in the U.S., said it has suspended certain foreclosures in 23 states, due to procedural problems.

The Obama administration has designated July 21, 2011 as the date the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will take over enforcement of RESPA, TILA and other federal consumer protection laws that directly impact mortgage bankers.

Defaults on commercial real estate loans are beginning to play a larger role in the failure of FDIC-insured institutions than construction loans, according to Trepp LLC.

Government-backed loans continued to grab a larger slice of the mortgage market last year, according to new Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data released Monday.

As the national foreclosure prevention campaign and other efforts mature, loan modification fraud is becoming more defined, increasingly falling into two categories. And in both cases, it only takes a weak link in the mortgage-servicing process to open the door to thousands of dollars in losses.

It would appear that the days of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac being “kinder and gentler” owners of problem mortgages could be coming to an end.

The total dollar amount of outstanding subprime loans in the nation fell to $714 billion at June 30, a 45% decline from the peak back in 2007, according to figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.

Technology provider DataVerify has enhanced its enterprise-wide fraud management platform, DRIVE, to help mortgage lenders identify and avoid potential short sale and property flipping losses.