The nation’s subservicers increased their base of contracts to $1.615 trillion in the second quarter, a modest 1.6 percent gain from the prior period, but a handsome 17.0 percent improvement from the same period a year earlier, according to survey figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance. Overall, these third-party processing vendors – who split the monthly fee with the actual owner of the servicing strip – control 15.9 percent of all residential mortgage debt in the nation. A year ago the reading was 14.0 percent. And it’s...[Includes one data table]
Rushmore Loan Management Services, Irvine, CA – a subservicing specialist – plans to enter the origination market early next month, a rarity for firms whose forte is processing loans for others. Company CEO Terry Smith told Inside Mortgage Finance that the nonbank’s direct-to-consumer arm is scheduled to begin funding loans on Sept. 1. “Our focus will be on originating loans – and servicing those loans,” Smith said. He also noted...
The Federal Communications Commission has refused an industry request to exempt mortgage servicing calls from prohibitions against the use of “robocalls,” or automated dialing and calling systems, to contact delinquent borrowers on their cell phones. In a long-awaited final rule limiting the way servicers can collect on student loans, mortgages and other debts owed to the federal government, the FCC said it would not make a decision on whether the statutory exemption from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s “prior express consent” requirements applies to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans or their servicers. The TCPA and FCC regulations require...
Rising costs for mortgage servicing and more frequent transfers have become key issues for the industry, according to panelists at a seminar hosted by the Urban Institute and CoreLogic last week. Ed DeMarco, former acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and now a senior fellow at the Milken Institute, said that mortgage servicing compensation has not changed in decades as the servicing industry itself has undergone what he called “profound changes.” He noted...