Loss mitigation

The foreclosure inventory rate in July reached the lowest level recorded for any month since August 2007, according to CoreLogic.

Mortgage servicing has undergone a dramatic transformation in response to the housing crisis, creating an environment where a focus on the consumer will define how servicers approach their business and regulators oversee their operations.

Zais Financial Corp. has begun to quantify the effects that the major flooding across Louisiana had on its Baton Rouge-based mortgage banking subsidiary, GMFS.

In an unusual move, Fannie Mae has obtained credit ratings for eight previously unrated tranches of five Connecticut Avenue Securities transactions issued between 2012, when the program was launched, and 2015.

Plenty of banks have ended their federal loss-share deals early, but despite the incentives to wind them down, plenty more still have these crisis-era arrangements in place. It may be due to varying deadlines, mistakes calculating loan values or worries that they still might need the coverage for home equity lines.

Ditech Financial will lay off nearly 80 employees in Georgia as it closes an office in the Atlanta metropolitan area.

LM Funding swung to a net loss from last year amidst ballooning expenses and lower interest income from delinquent association fees.

Servicers got what they asked for when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau limited the specificity of certain requirements in its final servicing rule. Now they may regret it.

Fannie Mae is prepping servicers to handle the issues homeowners may face in the wake of severe flooding across Louisiana.

Deval LLC in Dallas has received Fannie Mae servicer approval.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday finalized new requirements for mortgage servicers that provide more help to struggling borrowers and add consumer protections when loans are transferred.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau added its voice Tuesday to a chorus of other regulators in calling for sustainable foreclosure relief when the Home Affordable Modification Program expires at yearend.

Mortgage servicing has a reputation for being cold and impersonal, but companies have the opportunity to put more of a personal touch on their interactions with borrowers by analyzing the wealth of data available to them.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a plan Thursday to overhaul the debt collection industry that would limit collection attempts to six per week and require confirmation of a debt before contacting consumers. The plan, however, is not yet directed at banks and credit card companies.

Walter Investment Management Corp. subsidiary Ditech Financial plans to lay off more than 100 employees in North Carolina and Texas following declines in defaults across the country.

As if high default costs haven't been challenging enough for mortgage servicers, a growing number of seriously delinquent loans are Federal Housing Administration products, which require significant upfront investment to resolve.

Federal regulators warned mortgage servicers Monday that they will still expect them to offer loan modifications to distressed homeowners even after the Home Affordable Modification Program expires at yearend.

Ocwen Financial Corp. has converted more than 4,100 trial plans into permanent modifications through the Treasury Department's streamlined modification program.

The Dec. 31 expiration of the Home Affordable Modification Program will have a limited negative effect on residential mortgage-backed securities from 2008 or earlier, according to Moody's Investors Service.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s first report on the sales of nonperforming loans owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may seem discouraging at first.