Servicing

A slowdown has started to take place for home values through the first quarter of 2013.

Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. has entered into separate settlement agreements with Bank of America and Countrywide Home Loans that settle the dispute over its rescission and denial policies.

First-quarter cumulative defaults for fixed-rate commercial mortgage-backed securities were up 18 basis points from the end of 2012 at 13.6%.

Tandy Katanis received 81 months in prison for forging names on home equity loan documents.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling on the credit scoring and reporting agencies “to stop the lowering of credit scores” for Hurricane Sandy victims.

Bank of America and American Asset Corp. have settled their dispute over 10 loans, ending the litigation between the bank and various borrowers; AAC controls and manages those properties.

Moody’s Investors Service Thursday afternoon downgraded $56 million in legacy subprime residential mortgage-backed securities from various trusts primarily in response to weak interest shortfall reimbursement mechanisms and recent performance reviews.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust has priced a private offering by its PennyMac Corp. subsidiary, a $200 million aggregate principal amount of its exchangeable senior notes due 2020.

As housing markets continue to stabilize across the country with rising home prices and inventories shrinking in these cities, this ultimately leads to the possibility for a higher potential of mortgage fraud.

Lender Processing Services had net income of $54 million in 1Q13, a 13% increase over the $47 million earned in the same quarter last year, even though revenue decreased 3% between the two periods. In 4Q12, when it settled some of the legal matters, LPS earned $2.8 million.