Loss mitigation

Home retention actions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac through the first three quarters of 2018 already eclipsed 2016 and 2017 while forfeitures kept declining, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The government-sponsored enterprises sold fewer nonperforming loans in the first half, but the drop-off in the number of sales year-to-year is less severe than it was in 2017 as a whole.

Altisource Portfolio Solutions plans to discontinue its buy-renovate-lease-sell business for single-family homes and sell its short-term inventory in order to cut costs and repay debt.

Goldman Sachs is getting closer to hitting its $1.8 billion consumer relief obligation as outlined in mortgage settlement agreements between the U.S. Department of Justice and three states.

The Federal Housing Administration is making it easier for reverse mortgage servicers to submit insurance claims by expanding the types of supporting documentation it will accept on defaulted loans.

The new policy, meant to assist borrowers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, will let servicers evaluate borrowers using pre-disaster payment information.

Wells Fargo estimates that in 400 instances, borrowers later went through foreclosure who were improperly denied or not offered a mortgage modification.

Sales of nonperforming loans by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac slowed during the past year as the number of delinquent loans on their books continued to drop.

Ocwen Financial Corp. got back in the black during the first quarter after selling New Residential Investment Corp. $110 million in economic rights to mortgage servicing.

From tech that ensures foreclosures are processed correctly to implementing robotic process automation, here's a look at seven strategies that servicers can use to stay compliant and on budget.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has dropped an investigation into Altisource, a mortgage servicing technology firm with close ties to Ocwen Financial.

The New York Department of Financial Services is fining Nationstar Mortgage $5 million for failing to comply with servicing and origination regulations as it grew between 2012 and 2014.

Hope LoanPort will receive funding and guidance to expand its loss mitigation platform for servicers, housing counselors and mortgage borrowers from the Finance of America Foundation, a nonprofit with ties to former Rep. Barney Frank.

Freddie Mac is now accepting bids on $420 million in nonperforming loans, its first NPL sale of 2018.

Almost two years after settling mortgage securitization allegations with the Department of Justice and a group of states, Goldman Sachs has fulfilled more than half of its consumer relief commitment.

A new due diligence firm created by a trio of former Clayton Holdings executives wants to shake up a static business model.

Communication between all parties in the chain, from borrower through guarantor, is the best way to minimize mortgage losses after events like last year’s hurricanes and wildfires, according to servicers and federal officials.

Mortgage servicers should approach efforts to overhaul their compensated structure with caution, as changes to the status quo "could have ripple effects across the entire real estate finance industry," warned Mortgage Bankers Association Chairman David Motley.

From insights about borrower payment preferences to new automation assisting with natural disaster recovery efforts, here's a roundup of news coming out of the Mortgage Bankers Association Servicing Conference.

Servicers that handle loans in the government's Making Home Affordable program could face more enforcement at the urging of the Special Investigator General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.