What We're Hearing

Many a firm has entered the "nonperforming loan" (NPL) space in the past 18 months, hoping to make a buck during one of the most serious downturns this industry has ever seen. Some have turned to investing in NPLs (though it doesn't appear many large deals are getting done) while others have morphed into subservicing specialists whose mission in life is to work out delinquent and severely delinquent loans for others. One subservicing firm recently was kind enough to provide me with some figures on the quality of the loans it's dealing with. This firm, which did not want to be identified, said its portfolio (almost $2 billion worth) has a 73% delinquency rate. No, that's not a type-o. Its goal is not to foreclose on consumers, but to help them bring the loans current or modify them. Meanwhile, it's the end of earnings season which means mortgage vulture fund PennyMac should be coming out with earnings sometime. The company's PR man didn't return a recent phone call about the date...