Servicing

Recently we heard of a West Coast REO auction where one investor arrived in a hotel ballroom (where the event was being held) with body guards and $40 million worth of cashier checks.

Barclays Capital, Citigroup Global Markets, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank Securities were among the winning bidders for the sale of roughly $4.5 billion of additional assets from the Maiden Lane III portfolio.

Ally Financial Inc. lost $898 million in the second quarter, blaming its troubled (and bankrupt) mortgage banking division, Residential Capital Corp., for its problems.

Servicers of securitized commercial mortgage loans beware of the still-elevated delinquency rates.

Freddie Mac is extending its streamline refinancing program to mortgages with loan-to-value ratios of 80% or less, bringing its Home Affordable Refinancing Program in line with Fannie Mae’s.

A few hours after the Federal Housing Finance Agency officially slammed the door on principal reductions, the Treasury Department shot off a memo to agency director Ed DeMarco asking him—more or less—to reconsider his position.

Servicers completed 60,000 foreclosures in June, which is the same amount from the previous month but down 24% from last year.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage is embracing residential reforms mandated by the new national servicing standards, regulatory consent orders and the Dodd-Frank Act.

But the HUD auction raises an interesting question: if HUD can unload nonperforming loans (NPLs) why can’t Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

The Census Bureau reported that the number of the owner-occupied homes rose by 126,000 units in the second quarter after falling by 490,000 units in the first quarter.