If you’re opening a new mortgage company it stands to reason that the two least likely places you’d pick for your headquarters are New York City and San Francisco.
The prepayment rate on vintage jumbo mortgages serviced by Wells Fargo is outpacing the industry average by a wide margin, according to an analysis by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. A lower level of loan modifications by Wells appears to be driving the trend. BAML noted that prepayment rates on jumbo mortgages in vintage non-agency mortgage-backed securities have followed a stable trend in the last three years. However, since 2013, Wells-serviced jumbo fixed-rate ...
The Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded a 10-year contract to VRM Mortgage Services to manage VA’s real estate-owned assets and service its loan portfolio. The contract requires VRM, a 10-year-old California-based real estate services contractor, to manage, market and sell VA REO properties, and provide other real estate services as well. The new contract was negotiated from a previous five-year contract that was awarded to VRM when VA consolidated both REO management and portfolio servicing into a single contract.VA has often sold conveyed properties with seller loan financing, known as vendee loans, to help keep distressed vet homeowners in their homes. Vendee lending is an arrangement whereby a buyer uses VA financing to purchase a property in the agency’s REO inventory. “Once a loan is sold under the vendee financing program, we would monitor that loan as well as ...
The latest issue of FHA’s Lender Insight provides additional information to lenders regarding the new Loan Review System that was launched on May 15, 2017. FHA urged lenders to keep their contact information current in FHA Connection and in the Lender Electronic Appraisal Portal so that they receive automated system notifications on time. Also, lenders should review current FHAC user access for appropriate roles, the agency added. Lenders’ in-house FHAC application coordinators are authorized to grant access to, and assign roles within, the LRS. Having the correct roles should enable users to access the system from the FHAC menu, the FHA said. In addition, the lender must take a photo of any error messages that might appear on screen before contacting the FHA Resource Center, the agency advised. Be prepared to provide the date and time of the attempted login, user ID, lender user ID and the ...
Fresh off agreeing to buy $20 billion in mortgage servicing rights and production assets from New York Community Bancorp, Freedom Mortgage is in the hunt for more deals. “We’re looking and we’ve had people approach us with opportunities,” company founder and CEO Stanley Middleman told Inside Mortgage Finance. “We’re working on several MSR acquisitions right now.” Middleman declined...
Progressive Democrats helped derail housing-finance reform legislation in the last Congress because they thought affordable housing provisions weren’t rigorous enough. It’s clear that issue will be key in the renewed reform effort taking shape in the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, along with another matter that was mostly overlooked in 2014: mortgage servicing. Late in the panel’s hearing on reform last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, made clear that affordable housing will be an issue. “There’s an affordable housing crisis in this country pushing homeownership below 64 percent,” she said, adding that it’s also put a strain on rental units. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-OH, the ranking minority member of the panel, said...
Compliance issues involving nonbank servicers remain an ongoing problem, according to new reports from state regulators. And the regulators raised concerns about how a shift by lenders to purchase mortgages increases compliance risks. “The increase in transfers of mortgage servicing rights to non-depositories in recent years has stressed these servicers’ sometimes inadequate operating systems and infrastructures, requiring greater regulatory attention,” the Multi-State Mortgage Committee said in a report to state regulators. The MMC was established by state regulators to supervise multi-state nonbank mortgage entities. Eight mortgage-related exams were...
Mortgage lenders will not be subject to supervisory or enforcement actions for violations of the early implementation guidance for the revised 2016 mortgage servicing rule, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB issued “non-binding” policy guidance last week to allay lenders’ fear of being penalized if they fail to implement the 2016 servicing amendments up to three days early, said industry attorneys. Issued in August last year, parts of the rules take effect on Oct. 16, 2017, and April 16, 2018. Technically, the “relief” applies...
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