The bloodletting in Bank of America's servicing division continued this month with the megabank giving pink slips to hundreds of workers.

We continue to hear plenty of talk about mortgage mergers and acquisitions with deal announcements likely to come between early July and late August.

The Treasury Department announced this week that the Home Affordable Modification Program and related initiatives will be extended again, this time until at least the end of 2016. HAMP activity has declined fairly steadily since 2010 but received a boost recently due to changes by the FHA. “We need to be there for homeowners facing foreclosure, those who are struggling with increasing interest rates on their modified mortgages and those whose homes are ...

Declining mortgage debt is good news for consumers, but not-so-good news for lenders. Then again, this trend can't last. Or can it?

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The OCC believes that HAMP loans perform better than proprietary mods because the program places an emphasis on reduced monthly payments, debt-to-income ratios and income verification. Servicers also receive incentive payments.

The supply of mortgage debt outstanding declined again during the first quarter of 2014, slipping to its lowest level in eight years, according to new Federal Reserve data. There was a total of $9.851 trillion of home mortgages outstanding as of the end of March, down 0.4 percent from the previous quarter. The mortgage servicing market has been in almost constant decline since midway through 2008, with a modest bump higher in the third quarter of last year after a relatively strong rally in housing activity. Even the agency mortgage servicing market lost...[Includes two data charts]

Although Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have, for years, had minimum capital requirements for mortgage companies that want to become seller/servicers, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and state regulators are now exploring codifying a capital minimum for nonbanks, according to industry officials and state regulators. During a webinar this week sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance, participants highlighted the “hot topic” nature of capital requirements for nonbanks. John Prendergast, vice president of non-depository supervision for the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, indicated that capital requirements for nonbanks are more of a matter of when, not if. However, participants who have been tracking the matter caution...

“Rather than earning on the front end, they’re increasing margins on the secondary sale," said mortgage analyst Ken Richey.

Regulatory scrutiny of the servicing sector appears unlikely to decrease anytime soon as officials with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau along with state regulators note that regulation of servicing is a top priority. During a webinar this week hosted by Inside Mortgage Finance, Ann Thompson, a senior analyst in the CFPB’s Office of Supervision Policy, said the federal regulator conducts a risk-based analysis of issues affecting consumers. “Mortgage-related issues are presenting...