Servicing

If the U.S. economy needs more stimulus, resuming the Federal Reserve's mortgage-backed security purchase program "would probably be the best course of action," according to San Francisco Fed President John Williams.

The National Association of Federal Credit Unions told leaders of the Senate Banking Committee last week that the credit union industry, which is emerging as one of the most important players in the home loan market, is opposed to any mortgage reforms that would include elimination of the federal guarantee on loans sold on the secondary market currently through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Is outsourcing American jobs -- white collar jobs, no less -- evil? Is it a bad thing to set up a servicing acquisition company in the Caymans because by doing so you can avoid paying both income taxes to your executives and corporate income tax?

Commercial mortgage-backed securities special servicers have increased their activity over the past two months with roughly $3.7 billion in newly modified loans, according to an FTN Financial report.

Bond insurer MBIA Inc. reported losses in the fourth quarter of 2011. In a report released last week, MBIA said that it had an adjusted pre-tax loss of $252 million in the fourth quarter. That compares to an adjusted pre-tax loss of $311 million in the fourth quarter of 2010.

PennyMac's Stanford L. Kurland has taken his share of criticism for helping to start the financial crisis. Now he is singing the praises of the government's latest attempt to fix it.

The Treasury Department has agreed to pay $171 million that it withheld from Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase after the two servicers fixed problems in how they handled government-backed residential loan modifications.

Negative equity and home price volatility have turned home price protection into a desirable yet unattainable option since protecting local housing markets from future devaluation is a challenge few insurers are willing to take on.

Here's a taste of a story appearing in the Monday edition of National Mortgage News: Brian Simon, CEO of Caliber Funding, in a recent interview predicted that his company could grow originations by threefold or fourfold in 2012.

Aurora Loan Services, Denver, on Friday finally made it official - the troubled mortgage firm will no longer accept new loan registrations or locks, but will continue to service its current mortgage customers.