Servicing

Every servicer and lender has an in-house servicing platform that measures major compliance milestones. But in today's environment that's not enough to tackle the ever-changing legislation that is constantly coming their way, according to Chris Saitta, president of Equator.

"It's really that granularity of the day-to-day decisions and day-to-day process bifurcated by which portfolio the property is in and which investor and which [mortgage insurance] company. It's a very complex decision process so you need a technology that can get into the granularity of automation."

Equator is an infrastructure Software as a Service provider based in Los Angeles. Currently, the company has 60 servicers on its technology platform, including seven of the top 10.

Regulatory changes continue to be what largely drives automation for those on the production side, especially when it comes to the documentation necessary, according to executives at DocMagic Inc., Carson, Calif., which does business as Document Systems Inc.

The StoneHill Group Inc. is seeing a downtick in errors under the new RESPA rules although the company still has some clients who are struggling with the total implementation of these regulations, which have been in effect since the beginning of January.

The Atlanta-based quality control provider has helped lenders who suffered procedural problems go back and implement changes in the way they process information for proper disclosure with the Good Faith Estimate.

"That has been a help as we begin to audit these loans and report the findings to our clients," said Doug Parker, quality assurance manager.

Two years ago when the housing market looked bleak, it was thought that the road to riches in mortgage banking could be found in creating a firm that specialized in servicing (or subservicing) problem loans. The logic was simple: with $2 trillion in home mortgages expected to go south someone would have to service all that junk.

House prices rose 0.5% in May following a 0.9% jump in April, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency house price index, which has posted price increases over the past four consecutive months.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association wants an explicit guarantee and preservation of the to-be-announced MBS market as part of any restructuring of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The record low average 30-year mortgage rate seen this week may not be sustained, but current economic and market conditions point to 30-year rates below 5% "for some time," according to a new Freddie Mac forecast.

Old Republic International Corp., Chicago, posted a net profit of $57 million in the second quarter, a major improvement from the same period last year, and another sign that the beleaguered MI industry may be on the road to recovery.

Chalke, president of Mortgage Harmony Corp., has written an op-ed about the "disposable" nature of today's mortgages and why he thinks loans need to be more "durable."

Something's not quite right in the mortgage business. I'm not talking about the obvious relaxation of underwriting standards in recent years (now corrected a bit too much), but something deeper-something fundamental to the business itself. During the past 20 years, the residential mortgage has become disposable. The consumer keeps a product only as long as it remains fashionable and rates don't move too much. Should product trends change or rates move, borrowers toss their mortgage aside like an old suit and obtain a new one. We all know this, but the fundamental issue continues to fester.

Kislak Mortgage is re-entering the residential mortgage origination business with up to 10 store-front offices in Florida, one of the most troubled housing markets in the U.S.