Servicing

Gateway Mortgage Group, Tulsa, Okla., this week launched a new correspondent lending division that will purchase conforming and government loans from depositories and mortgage bankers, with the aim of retaining the servicing rights.

What do the federal bureaucrats who run Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac know that private mortgage lenders don't?

Wells Fargo & Co. is in the market with a $270 million package of nonperforming residential mortgages, according to investors and investment bankers who play in the space.

Due to the seasonal declines in home prices and slowing foreclosure pipeline which is depressing home prices, the negative equity share rose in late 2011.

In an effort to reduce foreclosure rates among military families, Hope Now facilitated an event that brought together mortgage financiers and stakeholders with the focus being on prevention of foreclosure for military families.

Foreclosure activists rallied outside the San Francisco home of Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf recently, armed with life-size cardboard cutouts of him inscribed with the unflattering tagline, "Wall St. Robber Banker."

Federal Housing Administration single-family endorsements rose 9.5% in January from the prior month while the percentage of seriously delinquent government loans inched up to 9.8%.

There was nearly $5 billion in primary new insurance in January written by the members of the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America, down from $5.8 billion in December.

Turning foreclosed properties into rentals on a mass scale will reduce "some of the fears that an avalanche of distressed properties" will rattle the housing market, according to a new report from Wells Fargo Securities.

While MERS QA is neither unreasonable nor unexpected, the challenges uncovered in the race to comply are significant. Never before has the industry asked servicers to ensure the data of originators.