Servicing

Rep. Val Demings introduced legislation in Congress that automatically triggers a stop on evictions and foreclosures for homeowners with federally-backed mortgages when a disaster is declared.

The rate at which borrowers went past due on their home loans showed near-term improvement in July, according to Black Knight, but servicers fear those who still have forborne payments won’t recover.

Marked declines in loans that have had relatively higher levels of pandemic-related distress reinforced other indicators suggesting the market could normalize if infection rates remain contained.

But 45% of the top 100 counties still have an above-average likelihood that borrowers won’t make their payments on these business-purpose loans, RealtyTrac said.

The move adds to signs that the broader restart of foreclosures won’t get fully underway until 2022.

Forborne mortgages stemming from the coronavirus outbreak reached their lowest level since late March 2020, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Depressed margins and a $219 million hit to its servicing rights fair value translated to a lower bottom line at the wholesaler.

In a best-case scenario, the money could wipe out almost one-third of the pandemic-related increase in missed payments, but it won’t exclusively be used for that purpose.

Financial institutions will have until early October to weigh in about new risk-based capital requirements for nonbanks.

The agency developed measures taking effect Aug. 31 that, among other things, will allow lenders to prioritize foreclosures of the most impaired loans and then focus on modifying salvageable ones.