Mortgages

Today's mortgage bankers have to accept very, very long audits as a marketplace reality. Whether they find auditors likeable and useful, on the other hand, is highly disputable.

Newcastle Investment Corp. said it will be a partner in Nationstar’s plan to purchase $374 billion of servicing rights from Residential Capital Corp. by investing upwards of $300 million in the “excess” servicing strip on the deal.

The long-term rate-indicative 10-year Treasury yield on Monday morning dropped to a low below 1.8% not seen since February.

For almost 95% of mortgage borrowers who refinanced in the first quarter, staying in or moving to a fixed-rate product was the goal, according to the latest Freddie Mac quarterly product transition report.

TriLyn has formed an investment management platform focused on opportunities in high-yield commercial real estate debt.

A group of Wall Street banks and ratings agencies told a federal court in Miami that “greed” and the need to grow earnings was responsible for the 2009 demise of Eastern Financial Florida CU, the one-time $2.4 billion credit union, not alleged fraud on their part in the sale of $100 million of risky financial derivatives known as collateralized debt obligations.

But what does the eventual resolution of ResCap really mean? Answer: A new, stronger competitor (Nationstar) could rise from the ashes. (If Dan Mudd was still at Fortress -- which owns a piece of Nationstar -- he might be considered the “Comeback Kid.”)

Assured Guaranty Ltd. posted a small profit for the first quarter of 2012 and last week announced a deal with Deutsche Bank over soured mortgage backed securities.

Congress is not likely to pass recently proposed legislation that would reform the Home Affordable Refinance Program and promote competition among mortgage servicers, according to analysts at the Royal Bank of Scotland.

President Obama traveled to a couple's home in Reno, Nev., on Friday in his effort to pressure Congress into passing legislation that would allow more Americans to refinance their mortgages.

President Obama traveled to a couple's home in Reno, Nevada, on Friday in his effort to pressure Congress into passing legislation that would allow more Americans to refinance their mortgages.

The California Association of Realtors and the California District Attorneys Association have launched a campaign to warn homeowners about the alarming increase in scams targeting foreclosure victims.

Although Nationstar has agreed to buy most of Residential Capital Corp.’s mortgage assets, the sale is by no means a done deal, according to ResCap CEO Tom Marano.

Under the servicing settlement, state funds are supposed to be used “to avoid preventable foreclosures” and “ameliorate the effects of the foreclosure crisis.”

What is clear after reading the May 9 information release is that when it comes to the CFPB and the Federal Reserve, the left arm clearly does not know what the right arm is doing.

The owners of a Los Angeles-based real estate company were charged last week by the Securities and Exchange Commission with violating antifraud and securities registration provisions by defrauding investors through a business that had false track records.

It’s not easy being a GSE, executives speaking as the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Secondary Market Conference in New York made clear last week.

The government controlled Ally Financial Monday morning said its board has voted to place Residential Capital LLC into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while it finalizes a deal to sell substantially all of its assets to Nationstar Mortgage for $4 billion. In total, 50 ResCap affiliates are affected by the filing.

Freddie Mac CIO Robert Lux shares his thoughts about the GSEs’ Uniform Mortgage Data Program.

Is the mortgage industry in the throes of what might turn out to be a lengthy and profitable recovery? Let’s look at the signs: Fannie Mae just posted a hefty profit, Freddie Mac has earned money on an operating basis for at least two quarters in a row, many lenders are enjoying strong profit margins and the HARP program appears to be humming along. Optimists might have reason to pop some champagne.