Can there be any doubt that servicing holds sway over the current mortgage market? 2010 saw 1.3 million foreclosures, another record, with predictions of higher yet in 2011. The robo-signing scandal threw an unwelcome spotlight on the shoddy foreclosure practices of the big servicers. Government programs like HAMP and HAFA tried valiantly all last year to make a difference in the default logjam (without quite achieving it). Short sales boomed. Originations appear to be in steep decline.
All this is why we are again sponsoring the SourceMedia Mortgage Servicing Conference at the Westin Galleria in Dallas on April 5-7. This fifth iteration of our servicing show promises to be another lively and news-making event.
Even before the conference proper starts with a scheduled keynote by Richard H. Neiman April 5, New York’s superintendent of banks, there will be a lot going on at the servicing conference. A “peer to peer” lender/servicer group will meet behind closed doors to air out industry issues and challenges—without vendors, lawyers or regulators, in order to get a free-flowing discussion of what is really on their minds. Also, we plan a roundtable on servicing issues that will be taped for transcription in National Mortgage News.
The next day, April 6, will start with a keynote by Mary Coffin, servicing EVP, Wells Fargo. Coffin is a lively and informative speaker who will look at the niche through the perspective of her giant servicer.
There will be several informative panel sessions as well, including one on servicers that have achieved notable success during tumultuous times. Another will take a look at the future of the investor servicer model, asking the question: Is the existing pricing model working? And a third will deal with the timely topic of foreclosure prevention.
In the afternoon the conference will break out into two groups, one concerned with default servicing and REO, and the other on nondefault servicing, which was once the hottest part of the business and will be again someday.
The conference concludes on April 7 with an update on the Dodd-Frank re-regulation act and a keynote on regulation by Larry Platt, the well-known mortgage banking partner at law firm K&L Gates. The final panels will be about risk management and the role of servicers in urban renewal.
We plan to again chair this worthwhile conference, which we are co-sponsoring with our sister publication Mortgage Servicing News.
