Servicing

ACC Capital Holdings, Orange, Calif., is actively entertaining offers for its entire mortgage franchise, which includes Ameriquest Mortgage and its wholesale arm, Argent, investment bankers and other officials have confirmed to MortgageWire.As of MW's deadline, an ACC spokesman had declined to comment. Matthew Howlett, an analyst with Fox-Pitt Kelton, said he has been hearing reports that Ameriquest, Argent, and the servicing operation are all up for grabs. According to the Quarterly Data Report, Ameriquest services $113 billion in loans, ranking second among all subprime firms. ACC is a privately held company controlled by California businessman Roland Arnall, who is now serving as U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands. Estimates vary, but bankers say the entire mortgage operation could fetch close to $2 billion. (For the full story, see the Dec. 4 issue of National Mortgage News.)

Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. has launched an index series for agency collateralized mortgage obligations designed to track the performance of the asset class."The Merrill Lynch U.S. Agency CMO Index is the first to tackle this large, complex asset class," said Phil Galdi, managing director of the firm's global bond index and analytics group. The index series' data sets of returns and risk characteristics are available back to December 1996.

The Hispanic National Mortgage Association has enlisted Deutsche Bank as a joint venture partner in a new correspondent bank that will purchase low-downpayment mortgages made to Hispanics and other immigrant borrowers.Based in San Diego, the new HNMA Funding is jointly owned and capitalized by HNMA and Deutsche Bank. The company said its programs will enable lenders to offer interest rates "significantly lower" than the subprime rates many Hispanic borrowers have historically been offered. "By creating a new liquidity vehicle for mainstream lenders, we are addressing one of the major impediments to Hispanic homeownership and demonstrating our commitment to this market and our willingness to accept and retain credit risk," said HNMA Funding chief executive Leonardo Simpser. HNMA recently unveiled a new automated underwriting system that is specifically calibrated to approve loans to Hispanic and immigrant borrowers with little or no traditional credit history, as well as applicants who don't have a Social Security number -- but do have a Taxpayer Identification Number.

GMAC Mortgage LLC, Horsham, Pa., has been chosen to handle the interim subservicing for Loan Center of California Inc., a wholesale mortgage company specializing in nontraditional mortgage products.LCC, a privately held mortgage bank based in Suisun City, Calif., focuses on payment-option adjustable-rate mortgages linked to the monthly Treasury average or the London interbank offered rate, as well as on first- and second-lien alternative-A home loans originated in California. Ed Blanch, president and chief executive officer of LCC, said the company picked GMAC Mortgage for its "unique expertise in servicing alternative loan products." GMAC can be found online at http://www.gmacsolutions.com, and LCC can be found at http://www.rateprice.com.

Three classes of MASTR Second Lien Trust 2005-1 mortgage pass-through certificates have been downgraded by Fitch Ratings.The downgrades were as follows: class M-8, from BB to B-plus; class M-9, from BB to B; and class M-10, from B to C. Class M-10 was also assigned a Distressed Recovery rating of DR5. In addition, the ratings on eight other classes in the transaction were affirmed. The downgrades were attributed to the failure of overcollateralization to reach the target level, and to the fact that monthly losses have exceeded excess spread in four of the last five months, Fitch said. The rating agency can be found online at http://www.fitchratings.com.

The market composite index, an overall measure of mortgage applications, declined 3.7% to 623.6 in the week ending Nov. 17 from 647.5 one week earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis.The seasonally adjusted refinancing index decreased by 4.3% from the previous week and the home purchase component of the index fell 2.8%, even as the average contract interest rate for 30-year mortgages decreased to 6.13% from 6.15% a week earlier. Still, the refinancing share of mortgage activity increased to 48.6% of applications, up from 48.0% the previous week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said. That was the highest refinancing share since February of 2005. The MBA can be found on the Web at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.

RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure marketplace based in Irvine, Calif., has reported that new properties entering some stage of foreclosure reached the highest level of the year in October and were 42% higher than the level recorded a year earlier.The company's U.S. Foreclosure Market Report indicates that 115,568 new foreclosure properties were added to the rolls in October. "So far this year more than 1 million properties have entered some stage of foreclosure nationwide, up 27% from the same time last year," said James J. Saccacio, RealtyTrac's chief executive officer. "Monthly foreclosure filings hit their highest mark of the year so far in October, mirroring the trend from last year, when the most foreclosures of the year were also reported in October." The company said Colorado, Nevada, and Georgia recorded the highest foreclosure rates in October. RealtyTrac can be found online at http://www.realtytrac.com.

Thrift originations of single-family loans increased by 1% in the third quarter from those of the previous quarter, but loan production was down 8% from that of a year earlier.Thrifts originated $149.9 billion in one- to four-family loans in the third quarter, down from $181.3 billion in the third quarter of last year, according to the Office of Thrift Supervision. Despite the slight increase, the percentage of adjustable-rate mortgages and refinancing activity fell noticeably. An estimated 26% of thrift originations were adjustable-rate mortgages, compared with 37% in the previous quarter, the OTS reported. Refinancings accounted for 27% of originations, down from 33% in the second quarter. The 853 OTS-supervised thrifts posted $4.29 billion in earnings, despite a $195.6 million hit due to a decline in the value of servicing fees. Nevertheless, it was the seventh consecutive quarter in which thrift earnings topped $4 billion.

An annual study by First American Real Estate Solutions finds that markets with a high rate of foreclosure sales also have deeper sales discounts when foreclosed property is sold.The study compares the relationship between foreclosures as a percentage of total sales and the size of the discount buyers typically receive when purchasing foreclosed properties. In Orange County, Calif., foreclosure sales accounted for 0.5% of total sales, and the buyer typically paid a median discount of 3.8%. Whereas in Baltimore, foreclosures made up 8.9% of total sales and the median discount was 20%. First American said the study shows a strong tendency toward increased foreclosure prevalence and deeper discounting for properties in the lower home-price tiers. "Discounts tend to be deeper in markets where foreclosures comprise 8% or more of all sales, regardless of geographic location or market type," said Christopher Cagan, director of research and analytics at First American Real Estate Solutions.

Doral Financial Corp., a mortgage lender based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, has announced the selection of Bear Stearns and JPMorgan to assist the company in evaluating options for refinancing its $625 million floating-rate senior notes that mature in July 2007.In September, Doral announced an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission under which it will pay a $25 million civil penalty in connection with the SEC's probe of Doral's restatement of financial results for 2000-2004. Doral's restatement slashed $694.4 million from its retained earnings through the end of 2004 to correct the accounting for certain mortgage loan sales and the valuation of its interest-only strips. Doral can be found online at http://www.doralfinancial.com.