Mortgages

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking industry and public comments on a prototype billing statement that residential servicers send homeowners to collect monthly mortgage payments.

The National Credit Union Association said Monday that a federal credit union may set the maturity date for modified or refinanced mortgages beyond the regulatory 40-year maturity limit, as long as the terms of the original loan were no more than 40 years.

If a condo crashes in South Florida, does anyone hear it? Apparently not, because yet another tower is planned for the tri-county area.

Just how hungry is Ocwen Financial Corp. for servicing rights? In a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission the nonbank servicer discloses that it is currently reviewing $300 billion of MSRs for purchase.

How much does Bank of America loathe the mortgage business? Let us count the ways: it kills its wholesale and correspondent units, trims its warehouse group down to nothing, allows its departing high-performance loan officers to leave and then starts lopping off huge chunks of its servicing portfolio.

In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama laid out a "Blueprint for an America Built to Last," calling for, among other things, action to help responsible borrowers and support a housing market recovery.

Bundled services never get out of fashion. Service demand indicates mortgage loan servicing process challenges from loan default to foreclosure management are carving out a new market for innovative default risk control and loss mitigation solutions.

If it weren't for a recent legal settlement with Bank of America, FHA's mortgage insurance fund would be in the red.

Borrower engagement is opening the way to an equally engaging relationship between servicers and field servicers.

Integra Group Real Estate, a brokerage firm specializing in the management and marketing of REO, HUD and distressed properties in Southern Arizona, has created a short sale department to help homeowners avoid possible foreclosure.

Caliber Funding LLC, Irving, Texas, Monday morning made it official: it has hired 300 "lending professionals" who were recently let go by MetLife Home Loans.

The Federal Housing Administration will "soon" increase its annual premium on jumbo mortgages by 25 basis points, according to government budget documents released Monday morning.

The Obama White House, in its new budget, predicts that the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance fund will return to health by 2015 -- but warns that the agency's book of business is vulnerable to what it calls "Black Swans."

A mortgage banking firm specializing in VA loans is trying to sell $4.5 billion of GNMA-backed mortgage servicing rights through Interactive Mortgage Advisors, Denver.

Servicers could end up paying millions more toward the $25 billion mortgage settlement under deal terms that require them to review thousands of foreclosures involving members of the military.

Carrington Capital Management, a unit of Carrington Holding Co., and American Home Mortgage Servicing (AHMSI) have agreed to bring to a close the action filed by Carrington against AHMSI in 2009.

Field service companies must continuously evolve their best practices to develop and maintain the most effective vendor network possible. Key areas of focus are: recruitment, training, diversity and technology.

The California Housing Finance Agency has revised a policy that resulted in it foreclosing on homeowners who were current on payments but had been renting out homes financed through the agency. The policy went into effect last week.

Barclays Capital analysts said in a report released last week that large region-specific note and REO auctions have become a regular feature in the past year.

Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase have been sued by the law firm Baron and Budd alleging that the financial institutions illegally levied excessive and deceptive default service fees against borrowers who were late on mortgage payments.