Servicing

Banks have ramped up foreclosure activity in the past five months, with default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions at their highest levels in two years. It's a positive sign that banks are finally clearing out all the distressed loans still lingering from the housing crisis. Meanwhile, banks remain cautious about new lending, partly because of regulatory actions.

A nascent corner of the market for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds is on a roller coaster ride despite what Morgan Stanley calls the "pristine performance" of the mortgages linked to the debt.

Bank repossessions of distressed homes hit a 30-month high in July, as financial institutions continue to work through the backlog of bubble-era loans.

Consumer credit default rates remained stable during the month of July, according to credit bureau Experian.

Sabal Financial Group has put a $541 million portfolio of real estate loans up for sale.

Mortgage Contracting Services will close the Utah office of its MCS Valuations subsidiary and consolidate its operations into three offices nationwide.

The new supplemental performance metric should encourage lenders to serve lower credit score borrowers.

The Federal Housing Administration's Neighborhood Watch website is back online after crashing about three weeks ago.

Freddie Mac has begun an auction of delinquent nonperforming loans serviced by Ocwen Financial.

It was a small deal — about 220 U.S. home loans packaged into a $72 million bond offering — but it's looking like a post-crisis milestone.