Servicing Innovation May Aid Problem Asset Efforts

Moves to encourage active and more innovative account management by servicers might bring federal efforts aimed at clearing the problem mortgage asset glut and restoring the nonagency secondary market closer to their goals, according to one Mortgage Bankers Association Secondary Market conference panelist. Clearing problem assets should be a priority and done quickly in order to restore the market, Jeremiah Buckley, partner at BuckleySandler LLP, told this publication. He told attendees at the Chicago meeting while speaking as part of a panel discussion on secondary market impacts of government relief programs, that he believes the mortgage industry may make more progress toward this end by taking a page from the credit card industry, which manages its unsecured borrowers' payments more closely and on a monthly basis. He and fellow panelist Tom Knox, managing director in PriceWaterhouseCoopers structured finance group, told attendees that efforts like TALF and PPIP that recently have taken steps toward helping revive the nonagency secondary mortgage market currently are too preliminary or vague when it comes to how ultimately effective they will be when it comes to reaching this goal.