Servicing

Bank of America is in the market with a $2 billion package of mortgage servicing rights tied to loans that reside in private-label securitizations, according to bidders and investors briefed on the package.

Washington is squeezing small banks and chasing off the private equity investors who could help them, financier Wilbur Ross says.

Old Republic International Corp. has taken the next step in separating out its private mortgage insurance and consumer credit indemnity insurance units by selling 20.6% of Republic Financial Indemnity Group to an investor group headed by ORI president Christopher Nard.

Political races bring on all sorts of silly comparisons so why not take a stab at asking this: who would produce a more profitable mortgage banking company: President Obama or Mitt Romney?

The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes rose 3.4% in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.62 million units.

Changing market dynamics are putting more stress and constraints on commercial real estate servicing, causing processors to reevaluate their business models and strategies, according to a panel at the Mortgage Bankers Association commercial mortgage servicing and technology show this week in Dallas.

According to Lender Processing Services’ ‘First Look’ report from its database of nearly 40 million mortgage loans, the month-over-month delinquency rate rose 0.4% in April, bringing the overall delinquency rate of loans 30 or more days past due (but not in foreclosure) to 7.12%.

Bank servicers are doing what they can to avoid depressing home prices, by focusing on reducing foreclosures rather than flooding the market with their backlog of properties.

Declines in the mortgage delinquency rates on all one-to-four unit residential loans outstanding during the first quarter add another layer of affirmation to previous data that suggest some level of market stabilization.

Residential Capital Corp. last week began mailing out letters to its 2.5 million mortgage customers informing them of the firm’s bankruptcy filing but also cautioning them about keeping their loans current.