Steadfast Capital, in conjunction with its partner, Customers Bank, has launched a program that will offer long-term loans collateralized by mortgage servicing rights to nonbanks. The goal is to help these firms retain MSRs and possibly buy receivables in the secondary market. Until now, most commercial banks would only make one-year “working capital” loans to non-depository mortgage firms. Steadfast and Customers will extend credit with terms of up to six years. “A one-year loan is...

The Democrat and Republican heads of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee this week finally announced an agreement on comprehensive housing finance reform legislation but the release of a detailed bill for public consumption remains forthcoming. For now, it’s impossible to tell how the agreement reached by Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-ID, is any different than the bipartisan bill introduced early last year by Sens. Bob Corker, R-TN, and Mark Warner, D-VA. Johnson and Crapo are expected to release draft legislative language later this week, and move to a markup “in the coming weeks.” Like Corker-Warner, the Johnson-Crapo agreement includes...

By itself, BofA accounted for 79.3 percent of the $606.3 billion shrinkage in commercial bank MSR portfolios during 2013. Where did all that servicing go to?

The Department of Labor has asked the Supreme Court of the United States to review an appeals court ruling that put the kibosh on the agency’s policy that mortgage loan officers do not qualify under the administrative exemption to overtime pay. The legal question presented in Thomas E. Perez, Secretary of Labor, et al., petitioners, v. Mortgage Bankers Association, et al., is whether a federal agency must engage in notice-and-comment rulemaking before it can significantly alter an interpretation of an agency regulation. Last October, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia refused...

Private-equity firms such as Orange Capital and EJF Capital have been gobbling up shares in PHH Corp. the past year, believing the stock is undervalued. Among other things, “smart money” investors have noticed that the liquidation value of its mortgage servicing rights almost equals the entire company’s market capitalization rate. But that doesn’t mean PHH Corp. will be successful in its attempt to unlock shareholder value by selling off parts of the company, including its mortgage banking franchise and automobile fleet business. “The only thing that’s certain about PHH is that it’s trading below book value,” said one mortgage executive who has conducted business with the firm. Late this week, PHH common was selling...

The desire of the private mortgage industry to make a clean break from the past and repair its tarnished image caused the demise of the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America and fueled the creation of a new trade association that would strongly represent the industry’s interests in Washington, DC, and among the states. Conversations with various industry participants show significant support for the new trade association, U.S. Mortgage Insurers, which now represents six of the seven active firms in the industry. AIG affiliate United Guaranty has declined...

Whether a servicer was a bank or a nonbank doesn’t appear to have played much of a role in terms of performance in the non-agency portion of the Home Affordable Modification Program, according to the latest assessments by the Treasury Department. Six servicers were found to need “moderate” improvement: three banks and three nonbanks. HAMP incentive payments in the future could be withheld if the firms don’t improve their performance. The needs-to-improve list includes Bank of America, CitiMortgage, Nationstar Mortgage, Ocwen Loan Servicing, Select Portfolio Servicing and Wells Fargo. The other major HAMP servicer, JPMorgan Chase, was found to have largely satisfied HAMP performance requirements, based on assessments for the fourth quarter of 2013. Among the seven largest HAMP servicers, only nonbanks had...

Freddie Mac has begun reviewing servicing-related violations of its program rules, issuing notices of defect for certain violations, mostly related to the conveyance of properties to the GSE with title problems.

One warehouse executive, requesting anonymity, said usage rates for the fourth quarter and the first two months of 2014 “have been very low.” He gave a range of 20 percent to 50 percent.

In asking for the SCOTUS review, the DOL argues that the court of appeals erred in holding that an interpretive rule that alters the agency’s previous interpretation of a substantive regulation must be promulgated through notice-and-comment rulemaking.