Servicing

The agency issued a mortgagee letter late Tuesday eliminating many restrictions that blocked servicers from using the FHA-HAMP loan modification program to assist troubled borrowers with government-backed loans.

Prosecutors said from March to October 2009 Lorraine Brown instituted “a surrogate signing policy whereby employees signed, not their name, but the names of other employees on thousands of mortgage documents that were notarized and filed across the country.”

Eligible borrowers may ask for an independent review of their mortgage foreclosure file if they believe that they were financially injured as a result of servicer errors, misrepresentations or other deficiencies in the foreclosure process.

Signs are evident that health is returning to the housing and mortgage markets as the days of no downpayment, speculators and strategic defaults are fading.

Residential Capital LLC won court approval to sell its mortgage-servicing unit to Ocwen Financial for $3 billion after putting off a fight with loan investors and resolving other objections.

When it comes to certain things in the default industry, many folks seem to equate “leading edge” with anything paperless. Nowhere is this more true than in REO invoicing.

Negative equity in the third quarter experienced the largest quarter-over-quarter decline since the first three months of 2011.

The Government National Mortgage Association has loss reserves of roughly $357 million.

Among residential lenders, JPM’s mortgage division, Chase, ranks second nationwide.

Credit Suisse analyst Moshe Orenbuch writes in a new research note that management at Wells Fargo is "optimistic about the overall positioning of the mortgage business.”