Servicing

Several trade groups are pressing the GSE regulator to halt Fannie Mae’s secretive initiative to reduce the cost of force-placed insurance and replace it with a process that is more transparent and less disruptive to servicers.

Banks are pushing the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to give them a year to comply with new mortgage underwriting rules that could be released as early as this week.

Of the 17 stocks in the index, 13 closed higher, four closed lower and MGIC was unchanged.

As of yearend 2012 up to $49.3 billion in deals monitored by Fitch Ratings currently are under the scrutiny of a special servicer.

Another product option for the upside-down mortgage borrower.

Our most read story on nationalmortgagenews.com this past week was Brian Collins’ report on the mortgage angle of the fiscal cliff legislation.

Fitch tempered its optimism about U.S. home price increases that have been the largest since 2005, noting that gains tend to be from factors like supply-demand imbalances rather than economic strength.

BankFinancial has sold nonperforming loans and foreclosed-upon real estate with a combined value of $22.7 million to unnamed buyers via two bulk sales.

Veros Real Estate Solutions’ latest quarterly forecast indicates the top 100 markets nationwide will appreciate on average 1.2% over the next 12 months.

There were more losers than gainers among the member stocks of National Mortgage News’ Mortgage Industry Equity Composite as the market closed Thursday afternoon.