Servicing

Newcastle Investment Corp. said it will be a partner in Nationstar’s plan to purchase $374 billion of servicing rights from Residential Capital Corp. by investing upwards of $300 million in the “excess” servicing strip on the deal.

The long-term rate-indicative 10-year Treasury yield on Monday morning dropped to a low below 1.8% not seen since February.

For almost 95% of mortgage borrowers who refinanced in the first quarter, staying in or moving to a fixed-rate product was the goal, according to the latest Freddie Mac quarterly product transition report.

TriLyn has formed an investment management platform focused on opportunities in high-yield commercial real estate debt.

A group of Wall Street banks and ratings agencies told a federal court in Miami that “greed” and the need to grow earnings was responsible for the 2009 demise of Eastern Financial Florida CU, the one-time $2.4 billion credit union, not alleged fraud on their part in the sale of $100 million of risky financial derivatives known as collateralized debt obligations.

But what does the eventual resolution of ResCap really mean? Answer: A new, stronger competitor (Nationstar) could rise from the ashes. (If Dan Mudd was still at Fortress -- which owns a piece of Nationstar -- he might be considered the “Comeback Kid.”)

Assured Guaranty Ltd. posted a small profit for the first quarter of 2012 and last week announced a deal with Deutsche Bank over soured mortgage backed securities.

Congress is not likely to pass recently proposed legislation that would reform the Home Affordable Refinance Program and promote competition among mortgage servicers, according to analysts at the Royal Bank of Scotland.

President Obama traveled to a couple's home in Reno, Nev., on Friday in his effort to pressure Congress into passing legislation that would allow more Americans to refinance their mortgages.

The California Association of Realtors and the California District Attorneys Association have launched a campaign to warn homeowners about the alarming increase in scams targeting foreclosure victims.