The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week announced a limited principal reduction option for certain nonperforming, underwater borrowers with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac home mortgages. The agency characterized the program as the “final crisis-era modification program [and] a last chance for seriously delinquent underwater borrowers to avoid foreclosure.” The program is limited...

Over the past two years, PHH Corp. has lost $64 million on its mortgage business and now that Merrill Lynch has given notice that it wants to end some of its private-label contracts with PHH Mortgage, the nonbank’s future is beginning to look cloudier. Moreover, analysts and investors who follow the company wonder whether PHH’s private-label model – the bread and butter of its origination business – is fixable in the modern era of mortgage banking. Meanwhile, all of this is happening at a time when management hopes to sell the company, or at least field offers for some of its key assets, including a $226 billion servicing portfolio. The bad news for PHH started...

Servicers must round up eligible customers and present offers by October 15 of this year.

Some 59.6 percent of new issuance in the first quarter consisted of re-securitizations and deals backed by seasoned re-performing and nonperforming loans...

Many non-agency MBS investors insist that they aren’t comfortable with the liability posed by TRID…

The source continued: “Fannie and Freddie have the right to put non-compliant loans back to the originator. Eventually, someone will ask whether they knowingly bought loans that had TRID violations…"

Real estate agents find realty websites more useful in generating homebuyer leads than websites operated by mortgage lenders, according to the results of a new survey conducted by Campbell Surveys and sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance. “Real estate information available online is causing a fundamental shift in lead sources for homebuyer agents,” said Tom Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys. “Real estate agents prefer online home-buying platforms over mortgage lenders for homebuyer leads.” An agent’s “sphere of influence/personal reputation” remains...

With steady growth over the past four years, nonbank mortgage servicers should have more regulatory oversight, according to a recently released study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Several agencies, including the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, agreed with that recommendation. The share of home mortgages serviced by nonbanks tripled from 2012 to midyear 2015, growing from approximately 6.8 percent to 24.2 percent, the GAO said. The GAO recommended...

Wells Fargo last week reached an agreement to pay $1.2 billion to the federal government to resolve certification and reporting violations in connection with FHA-insured loans. The settlement is the largest recovery for loan-origination violations in FHA history, according to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro. The April 8 court filing details an agreement in principle, which Wells Fargo announced in February, that resolves not only a pending lawsuit filed by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, but also a number of potential claims dating as far back as 15 years in some cases, according to a statement issued by Wells Fargo. According to the settlement, Wells Fargo “admitted...

Over the past year, The Blackstone Group has been aggressively expanding into many facets of the mortgage business and is now ready to make what might be considered a bold move: investing and originating in residential loans that don’t meet the qualified-mortgage test. But just how big might Blackstone get? That’s hard to say at this point. A source inside the company, who spoke under the condition his name not be used, confirmed...