Risk management

The recent delay of new HECM rules is a reprieve for lenders scrambling to implement training and systems updates ahead of the original deadline. But it's also prompted questions about a key technology used by the reverse mortgage industry.

More than half of borrowers with home equity lines of credit that will reset this year have seriously underwater properties, and that risk is likely to grow further next year.

JPMorgan Chase has agreed to a $50.4 million settlement with the Justice Department for robo-signing documents sent to homeowners in bankruptcy and for related abuses.

From new compliance scorecards to rethinking how to deal with consumer complaints, there's plenty to debate about the future of servicing. Here's a look at the most insightful and noteworthy discussions from this year's Mortgage Bankers Association servicing conference.

An audit of Ginnie Mae financials identified four "material weaknesses" and one "significant deficiency," primarily related to the accounting of $6.6 billion in defaulted loans made by the failed lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker.

Embattled mortgage servicer Ocwen Financial faces up to $26 billion in damage claims by bondholders and a greater risk of being fired as a mortgage servicer on thousands of small, private-label trusts.

Ocwen Financial Corp., the mortgage servicer under attack for its handling of home loans, slumped the most in more than a month after receiving notices that it was being fired from overseeing debt backing two bond deals.

Although lenders received some good news via Freddie Mac's February U.S. Economy and Housing Market Outlook, raising the enterprise's 2015 originations forecast from $1.2 trillion to $1.3 trillion, the Aug. 1 TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule implementation deadline still looms large.

Ocwen Financial Corp., the mortgage servicer under attack for its handling of home loans, is being fired from overseeing debt backing two bond deals, according to notices sent to bondholders.

The scorecard compares issuers' operational strength and skill in managing delinquent loans with those of their peers.

The rate of delinquencies of 90 days or more has trended downward since 2009, but servicing costs have generally been rising, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That is not the way it used to work.

The Federal Housing Administration's recent premium reduction is undercutting the private sector and expanding the government's role in the housing market, housing finance industry representatives told a House subcommittee on Thursday.

It can be difficult to have enough staff to handle an exchange of mortgage servicing rights, though companies are exploring different solutions

Some nonbanks feel capital requirements discourage diversification among market participants and their participation in the market because they put more constraints on their financial options and bar smaller players.

Panelists at the MBA's mortgage servicing conference said that the best way for servicers to keep federal regulators off their backs is to be responsive consumer complaints. And if a state attorney general or regulator come knocking, it’s best to be responsive and cooperative.

It's not quite too big to fail, but Ocwen is the country's largest servicer of subprime mortgages. So if it were forced to sell itself, or even failed, the transfer of some $410 billion in servicing rights could create havoc in the mortgage market, industry experts said.

Recent court decisions against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders have put to rest the notion that the two mortgage giants exist as anything but instrumentalities of the U.S. government, according to a report by Kroll Bond Rating Agency.

If you want to know what a Greek exit from the euro would do to the €16.7 billion ($19 billion) of bonds out there backed by Greek assets, a good place to start is Argentina.

San Francisco's much-maligned Housing Authority is getting out of the management business.

While many servicers are under pressure to sell of mortgage servicing rights, there's still a fair amount of interest in buying MSRs from other quarters of the market.