Servicing

Agency mortgage-backed securities certainly dominate the market today in many respects, but as one aspect of the recent strategic plan for the GSEs highlights, the private-label market can be considered ahead of them in terms of loan-level disclosure and it is time for that to change.

It would appear that certain politicians - both left and right - look at guarantee fees and say to themselves: Hey, here's a way to raise some revenue and no one will blame us for taxing mortgage lenders. Well, guess again.

A federal appellate court has ruled that a Chicago homeowner can continue suing Wells Fargo for breach of contract and promissory fraud challenging the Home Affordable Modification Program.

Roughly 200,000 troubled mortgagors will have a chance to sharply reduce their loan balances under a side deal negotiated by Bank of America that could allow the bank to avoid as much as $850 million in penalties.

Freddie Mac reported a 16% increase in short sales last year and wants to boost the use of this foreclosure alternative by increasing the fees it pays participating servicers.

USAA Real Estate, San Antonio, Texas has made an investment in Square Mile Capital Management, a New York-based firm which specializes in equity and debt investments in distressed commercial real estate loans and properties. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

While Fannie Mae continues to bleed red ink like a busted crankcase, Freddie Mac turned a profit in the fourth quarter. Overall, it earned $1.5 billion -- but then had to give its "Godfather" (the U.S. Treasury) $1.7 billion in protection money, er, I mean, dividends. Sounds a bit screwy to me but then again the past 10 years in this industry have been screwy.

Mortgage companies cut 3,200 full-time employees from their payrolls in January, according to government figures released Friday morning.

Freddie Mac posted net "comprehensive" earnings $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter, but must turn around and pay the U.S. Treasury a $1.7 billion dividend, which means it ultimately lost money during the period.

It may be a buyer's market for residential servicing rights but that isn't stopping mortgage banking firms from unloading their legacy housing receivables in an attempt to clean up their balance sheets.