Between now and yearend, it should be a seller’s market for mortgage servicing rights, as long as the seller isn’t trying to unload legacy or “high-touch” product. Legacy deals – at least large ones – continue to be a non-entity in the market as buyers are focusing on smaller MSR packages tied to relatively new originations. One recent legacy deal that was scuttled entailed the sale of roughly $800 million in Ginnie Mae MSRs by Ocwen Financial. Industry advisors familiar with the situation aren’t sure why ...
Big banks have become much less reliant on principal-reduction loan modifications in the past year, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of data from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The shift does not appear to be due to improvements in loan performance because delinquency rates were essentially unchanged. Some 5.0 percent of the nearly 70,000 loan modifications completed in the second quarter of 2014 by eight servicers tracked by the OCC included principal reduction ...
Mortgage lenders originated an estimated $17 billion in new home-equity loans during the second quarter of 2014, a 30.8 percent increase from the previous period, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. But the volume of outstanding home-equity lines of credit and closed-end second mortgages held in portfolio by depository institutions – the biggest players in the HEL market – continued to dwindle. Banks, thrifts and credit unions reported a total of $540.4 billion of HELOCs on their books at the end of June, down 0.9 percent from March, along with a 1.5 percent drop in closed-end seconds. It continued...[Includes three data charts]
Several large nonbank lenders have banded together to form what they call a “working group” to address key regulatory issues that they say are stifling their growth and future prospects for success in a rapidly changing mortgage industry. The group’s members – including Ocwen Financial – will initially strive to educate and inform regulators about nonbanks, but will not lobby Congress. Members of the group stress that the nonbank collective is not a trade organization and does not seek that status. For now, Ocwen is...
Ginnie Mae is taking a closer look at change-of-control applications from issuers and servicers, according to investment banking advisors who work in mortgage industry mergers and acquisitions. “Ginnie is toughening up the change-of-control process to keep folks who got their tickets – and don’t use them – from trying to increase the value of their company in an M&A situation,” said one advisor who represents clients before the agency. He noted...
Mortgage servicers will likely proceed more carefully with their borrower interactions after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau compelled Flagstar Bank to pay $37.5 million to settle allegations it interfered with borrowers’ attempts to save their homes. In the first enforcement action based on its new mortgage servicing rule, the CFPB ordered Flagstar to pay $27.5 million to the victims, and $10 million in to the bureau’s civil penalty fund. According to the consent order, Flagstar committed...
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