Servicing

Facing the prospect of losing its license in California, Ocwen would be wise to settle its probe by state regulators in a timely manner, observers said. If it doesn't, the mortgage servicer could lose significant revenue and might even face a cash crunch.

Foreclosure filings on U.S. properties fell 18% in 2014 compared to a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac.

While put-backs and litigation risk are widely recognized as factors that have contributed to tight credit conditions, another factor — high servicing costs for nonperforming loans — is being overlooked.

Invitation Homes is sticking to the same large loan model of past single-family rental securitizations in its first deal of 2015.

Blackstone Group is offering the first securities of 2015 tied to rental homes, the start of what Morgan Stanley analysts predict may be a more than doubling of issuance this year in the nascent market for such debt.

The number of homes in some stage of foreclosure dropped 36% in November compared to the previous year, according to a report Wednesday from CoreLogic.

The unpaid principal balance of delinquent commercial mortgage-backed securities delinquencies fell by 23% as of Dec. 31 compared with the same day one year prior in 2013, according to Fitch Ratings.

The U.S. Supreme Court gave homeowners more ability to cancel their mortgages if lenders don't provide the required disclosures, in a setback for the banking industry.

Ocwen Financial Corp., one of the biggest U.S. mortgage servicers, fell the most ever after a newspaper reported that California is seeking to suspend its license.

Industrywide standards of best practices are a topic that deserves consideration by everyone involved. We should prove that common sense still can prevail.