Even with the incentive fees offered by the HAMP program, residential servicers favor proprietary mods.

As refinancings continue to fall, lenders that specialize in such loans will see their franchise values drop dramatically.

Investors searching for residential servicing rights can take a run at new offerings from Interactive Mortgage Advisors and MIAC, among others.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appears to have come out in support of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But will other elected officials follow suit?

Industry reaction to Obama’s speech was generally favorable, particularly as it related to his call for continued, unfettered access to the 30-year FRM.

Stated-income loans are being offered at 5.49 percent as long as the borrower puts down 20 percent. Meanwhile, Walter wants to keep its contract terms with Fannie Mae secret.

Ocwen Financial has outpaced subprime servicers in terms of growth in the past year and hopes to more than double its portfolio within the next year. Ocwen handled $145.98 billion in subprime mortgages as of the end of the second quarter of 2013, a 54.8 percent increase compared with the same time last year. In the past year, no other servicer grew at a rate even close to that, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. An estimated $440 billion in ... [Includes one data chart]

Ocwen Financial is preparing to enter a settlement with state regulators similar to the $25 billion national servicing settlement. A person with knowledge of the negotiations said regulators are working on settlements with individual servicers as opposed to the multi-servicer agreement with five banks announced last year. “We look forward to finalizing this process, which we expect will occur very soon,” Ronald Faris, Ocwen’s president and CEO, said last week during an earnings call. The servicer said ...

Three non-agency mortgage-backed security trustees filed lawsuits this week against Richmond, CA, which plans to use eminent domain to purchase mortgages with negative equity. The city recently sent letters to servicers and trustees of non-agency MBS offering to purchase 624 mortgages. If the MBS trustees do not sell the loans for the offered price of 80 percent of the current value of the properties, Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, a member of the Green Party, said the city intends to ...

Carrington Mortgage Services recently reversed its response to a survey regarding accounting for principal forbearance. The servicer initially told Fitch Ratings that it reported all forbearance amounts as losses on modifications and will continue to report forbearance mods as losses at the time of modification. However, near the end of July, Carrington said it has approximately $300 million in principal forbearance amounts that haven’t been reported as losses ... [Includes four briefs]