State attorneys general trying to negotiate a big-ticket settlement with top mortgage servicers saw their coalition fracture further over the past week, including a decision by Massachusetts to move independently toward litigation. A major stumbling block continues to be divergent views among the states on whether lenders should get immunity from non-servicing issues such as potential litigation over securitization as part of the deal. The widely held view is that top banks were willing to put up a combined $20 billion to be used to help struggling borrowers to settle legal challenges that were spawned by...

With mortgage interest rates touching 50-year lows, the volume of new business at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac struggled to gain positive traction during the third quarter, according to a new market analysis and ranking based on the Inside Mortgage Finance GSE MarketScope. The two government-sponsored enterprises churned out $177.2 billion of new single-family mortgage-backed securities during the three months ending in September. That was up 14.3 percent from the second quarter, but it still ranked as the second-lowest production level since financial markets tanked at the end of 2008. And it left GSE single-family business volume so...(Includes one data chart)

A majority of Americans say that they would be unable to pay their mortgage if they lose their jobs. According to a new Country Financial survey, 68 percent of homeowners say that, were they laid off, they wouldn’t have the means to continue paying their mortgages after nine months. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from August 2011 place average length of unemployment at slightly under 10 months, meaning that most Americans could be a pink slip away from delinquency. For some, the situation is more ominous. Slightly less than a third of Americans – 31 percent – say that they would only be able to continue...

States are moving quickly to implement laws and regulations facilitating “eExamination” of mortgage lenders, leveraging technological innovation to bring the industry closer towards the goal of self-examination and self-regulation. “We are close to 30 states that are doing eExaminations, and we’re trying to bring on additional states as we move forward,” said Michael Chan, vice president of technology vendor Compliance Ease. “One of the reasons why I would say we’re reaching a tipping point is that state regulators are conducting limited-scope electronic exams,” he added. The idea behind that is...

News media have for months barraged consumers with news of “record-breaking mortgage rates,” but some observers are confounded that the refinancing market isn’t exploding with consumers looking to take advantage of the historically low rates. Analysts at Barclays Capital chalk it up to originators setting higher mortgage rates for borrowers refinancing their homes than those purchasing a home, which might be a sign of capacity constraints. The purpose of the Federal Reserve’s Operation Twist is, in great part, to place more money in the pockets of borrowers in an attempt to stimulate greater activity in the housing market. However, much of...

Mortgage lenders need to get a better understanding of their business in today’s economic and regulatory environment and be able to make important decisions quickly in order to stay competitive, according to industry experts. Having more thoughtful insight into the mortgage business lies in the ability of a lender to go deep into its mortgage portfolio and see the risks and opportunities. The key to improving portfolio performance, experts say, is better analytics and using solutions to maximize the value of the portfolio. Today, banks are forced to redefine their loan accounting reporting in light of new regulatory requirements and expectations of...

Its decision to dump its wholesale correspondent channel is the latest in a series of moves by Bank of America to distance itself from “legacy” mortgage issues, but analysts remain doubtful. Moody’s Investors Service last week downgraded the bank’s rating. “The downgrades result from a decrease in the probability that the U.S. government would support the bank, if needed,” thanks to the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the ratings firm said. Moody’s said that the government is likely to continue to provide some level of support to systemically important financial institutions. “However, it is also...

The concept of the paperless mortgage is on the fast track to becoming the norm rather than the exception as technology advances improve productivity and influence thinking throughout the lending chain, according to a survey by Xerox Mortgage Services. Xerox’s seventh annual Path to Paperless survey found that most mortgage professionals now think online collaboration across multiple platforms is a key component to paperless mortgage adoption. Ninety-six percent of survey respondents indicated that working together through an electronic folder is crucial to achieving a more...

Preliminary results of a new evaluation program unveiled earlier this year by Fannie Mae indicate that some of the GSE’s servicers are satisfactorily meeting Fannie’s performance goals while others were below median performance levels during the first half of 2011.

Conforming loan limits will edge lower this weekend and likely have a bigger impact on the FHA market than on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac business, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis. Starting Oct. 1, the “emergency” conforming limits that were based on 125 percent of area median housing prices will be cranked down to “permanent” limits based on 115 percent of area median prices. That will lower the top high-cost market limit for single-family properties in the lower 48 states from $729,750 to $625,500. In the FHA market, there were some $2.39 billion of home loans exceeding $625,500 originated during...(Includes one data chart)