Servicing

There may be a simple reason why Wells won’t buy mortgages from a certain lender.

Ocwen Financial Corp., which has been gobbling up billions of dollars of mortgage servicing rights the past two years, earned $19.3 million in the first quarter, a 13% decline from the year ago period.

United Guaranty Corp., the mortgage insurance subsidiary of American International Group, had operating income of $8 million in the first quarter, down from $14 million for the same period in 2011.

Redwood Trust Inc., the nation’s only active securitizer of jumbo residential loans, posted stellar earnings of $30 million in the first quarter, a 66% jump from the same period a year ago.

Mortgage companies added 2,800 full-time employees to their payrolls in March after hiring 2,700 in February, according to government figures released Friday morning.

Mark Goldhaber, the government affairs chief for Genworth Financial, announced his retirement from the firm after 24 years, and immediately launched a new consulting business, Goldhaber Policy Services.

Home Loan Servicing Solutions Ltd., a Grand Cayman-based company that was spun off of Ocwen in a Feb. 29 initial public offering, reported net income of $1.3 million for the first quarter.

Since 2009, the Nevele Grande Hotel and Country Club has been closed. The property had gone into receivership prior to the purchase by Nevele Investors.

A new Federal Housing Finance Agency initiative will require the government-sponsored enterprise to create a common data standard and new servicing form under the Uniform Mortgage Data Program.

First-quarter surveillance of U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities and commercial real estate collateralized debt obligations suggest slow growth for CRE property markets this year.