Servicing

Most independent registered financial investment advisors are looking ahead to future growth and profitability.As "the independent advisor model continues to prove its staying power and appeal" to customers, these firms emerge from a difficult past few years for the financial markets and the economy with lower revenue and compressed profit margins, but profitable and in growth mode, says senior vice president and head of Charles Schwab Advisor Services, Bernie Clark.

There has been a lot of talk about government protecting mortgage investors in the wake of the downturn, but Tal Franklin, an attorney whose law firm represents a clearinghouse of private-label residential mortgage-backed securities investors, says it depends.

U.S. Central Federal Credit Union reported late Monday that growing losses on its portfolio of private-label mortgage-backed securities created a $39.4 million loss for its second quarter, and an $84.8 million loss for the first-half of the year.

Securities industry representatives responding to the just-completed comment period for the Securities and Exchange Commission's Reg AB are largely supportive of the proposed changes aimed at restoring transparency and investor confidence in mortgage-backed securities markets, but have larger concerns about the proposal and whether it can be applied across the board to non-mortgage asset-backed securities markets.

WASHINGTON — Senate appropriators are annoyed at the slow implementation of the government's Home Affordable Mortgage Program and want residential servicers — including the nation's megabanks — to be held accountable.

A small private-label 'scratch and dent' securitization backed by government reverse mortgages appears to be the first deal of this type, and could pave the way for more reverse MBS deals in the struggling private-label market.

The BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico could reduce home values in the immediate region by as much as $3 billion over the next five years, according to a new report from CoreLogic.

The state of the U.S. banking system has "improved significantly" since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the fall of 2008, but lending standards remain too tight, according to Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke.

Research conducted by VantageScore Solutions counters the popular notion that a consumer's credit score would take a big hit if his or her mortgage were to be modified.The company's president and chief executive Barrett Burns continued that entering a trial modification program would have no impact on the credit score in most circumstances.

Washington-While the government's HAMP program has had limited success, proprietary loan mods have become an important safety net.