Mortgage-banking profits fell sharply in 2014, but the servicing side of the business held its own and helped cushion the fall in production-related income, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of earnings reports. A diverse group of 11 mortgage lenders, including most of the giants of the industry, reported a combined $5.229 billion in production-related income for 2014. That was down 56.0 percent from the previous year ... [Includes one data chart]

Mortgage servicers participating in a recent servicing conference sponsored by Information Management Network described how they use a variety of business strategies and often change gears to adjust to evolving market conditions. Jorge Carvallo, a vice president at Banesco USA, characterized mortgage servicing rights as a “necessary evil” that his community bank generally tries to avoid. “We sell most of it because it’s economically difficult for us to ...

Members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Development cited a lack of flexibility to accommodate multiple types of users, a biased board of directors, and an unacceptable timeframe as their primary concerns about the common securitization platform. The bipartisan group of eight senators, led by Republican Chairman Bob Corker (TN), articulated their concerns surrounding the development and usage of the planned CSP in a letter addressed to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt. Primarily, they want to ensure that the CSP is designed to be just as usable and beneficial to the private sector as it is for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in order to avoid “the duopolistic tendencies of the past.”

A House bill with bipartisan support would delay Basel III capital requirements relating to mortgage servicing rights for all but the largest banks. The House Financial Services Committee this week approved, 49-9, H.R. 1408, the Mortgage Servicing Asset Capital Requirements Act. Introduced by Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-CO, the bill would require federal banking regulators to study the appropriate capital requirements for mortgage servicing assets for ...

Third Federal Savings & Loan in Cleveland is wooing first-time homebuyers with an offer of a $1,000 credit to spend as they wish if they close a purchase mortgage with the lender. There is no catch, said David Reavis, marketing manager for Third Federal. “There are no points and fees on the back end to cover the credit,” he said. “Third Federal is paying for it. We think the combination of a competitive rate and the $1,000 in the form of a check is an attractive offer that will ...

It’s still unclear whether the Home Affordable Refinance Program, set to expire in December, will be extended and if eligibility requirements will be altered. During remarks at a JPMorgan conference in March, Bob Ryan, special advisor to Mel Watt, Federal Housing Finance Agency director, said that a decision needs to be made in the coming months. HARP, introduced in 2009 as a way for borrowers with little or no home equity to refinance mortgages into affordable payments, was originally set to expire at the end of 2013 but was extended through this year. Close to 3.3 million loans were refinanced through HARP since it began in 2009, and as of September 2014 there were...

A company called NotaryCam is raising eyebrows – and hopes for the future of e-mortgages – with the deployment of what it claims is the world’s only notary service that securely and legally notarizes documents online within minutes via live web conference from anywhere in the world. Requiring just a standard webcam, NotaryCam, based in Alexandria, VA, can produce a digital version of notarized documents within minutes. And with browser-to-browser ...

In 2014, real estate owned vendor Altisource Portfolio Solutions grew its service revenue by a handsome 42 percent to $938 million while earnings crept up 3 percent to $134.5 million. So why is its stock price down 88 percent over the past year with both investors and stock analysts heading for the exits? To understand the plight of the publicly traded REO vendor, you first have to understand where it came from. ASPS is one of four spin-off companies of ...

Bank and thrift members had drawn a combined $437.7 million in Federal Home Loan Bank advances at the end of the fourth quarter of 2014, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance Bank Mortgage Database. That number represents an 11.6 percent increase from the previous quarter and an 18.8 percent increase from the same period a year earlier. Top-ranked JPMorgan Chase’s use of advances rose 8.3 percent and reflected its largest amount of advances used sequentially during 2014. The bank had drawn $60.0 million in the third quarter. Its advances were up 5.0 percent on a year-over-year basis. Second-ranked Wells Fargo remained steady with no quarterly percentage change of its $34.1 million in advances used. [exclusive data chart included]

After years of steady declines, the negative equity rate leveled off in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to industry analysts. The end to the trend was seen as a major turning point, with implications for loss mitigation efforts as increases to home prices aren’t enough to help many underwater borrowers. Some 16.9 percent of mortgage borrowers were in a negative equity position as of the end of the fourth quarter, according to Zillow. That was down from a peak of ...