Officials in the financial services sector are making a fresh push to alert the mortgage and residential mortgage-backed securities industries to the potential pitfalls that delinquent homeowner association accounts pose for them. “The securitization industry has little understanding” of homeowner and other types of community associations, collectively referred to as HOAs, said Jason Serrano, co-head of structured products and managing director for securities at Oak Hill Advisors ...

Average loan-to-value ratios and debt-to-income ratios on loans securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were slightly lower – and credit scores edged slightly higher – during the fourth quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis. The average LTV ratio edged down from 78.53 percent in the third quarter to 77.54 percent in the final three months of 2012. The average DTI ratio declined slightly, from 31.92 percent to 31.88 percent, while the average ... [Includes one data chart]

Thanks, in part, to HARP loans private mortgage insurers in 2012 posted their best year since the financial market collapse back in 2008, according to new figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance.

Roughly $20 billion of mortgage servicing rights that once belonged to Taylor, Bean & Whitaker are quietly being shopped around.

Joe Anderson, who worked at Countrywide Financial Corp. for 17 years and then Nationstar, is considered the top candidate to get the CEO job at Vericrest Financial.

Stonegate Mortgage has launched a new jumbo conduit, hiring Eric Schlotz, a 15-year veteran from GMAC-RFC in Minneapolis, to manage the operation.

Three senators are pushing for 3 percent downpayment language on the QRM rule.

Private mortgage insurers in 2012 posted their best year since the financial market collapse back in 2008 and suddenly – after being largely left as roadkill in the government’s bailout program – are attracting new capital. Private MIs reported $174.81 billion in total new insurance written in 2012, more than doubling the amount of business they did the year before, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. With the FHA and VA programs growing at a more deliberate pace, it boosted the private MI share of the primary mortgage insurance market to 32.0 percent, up from 22.7 percent in 2011. A significant part of the private MI rebound came...[Includes three data charts]

PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. may be out of the mortgage insurance business, but its surviving MI subsidiary, CMG Mortgage Insurance Co., will continue providing MI to credit unions under new management beginning in 2014. Last week, Arch Capital Group, a Bermuda-based provider of insurance and reinsurance, announced an agreement to acquire CMG MI from PMI Mortgage Insurance, as well as the latter’s operating platform and related assets. PMI is currently in rehabilitation and has been under the receivership of the Arizona Department of Insurance since 2011 after failing to meet statutory capital requirements. The transaction will not only allow...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced this week that it will closely scrutinize servicing transfers due to complaints from borrowers tied to a recent increase in servicing sales. The federal regulator published CFPB Bulletin 2013-01 this week detailing the new oversight standards, with an emphasis on loss mitigation issues. “The CFPB has particular concerns related to servicing transfers that arise from consumer complaints and supervisory work related to servicing transfers,” the federal regulator said. “Among other complaints, consumers have complained about service interruptions when their loans are transferred during the loss mitigation process.” The problems are related...