The Department of Veterans Affairs has called upon holders of VA-guaranteed single-family mortgage loans to extend forbearance to distressed homeowners affected by the severe storms and flooding in Louisiana and Texas. In recent guidance, the VA described measures VA lenders may employ to provide relief to disaster-stricken homeowners. The agency recommended careful counseling to see whether borrower difficulties are related to the storms or have been the result of other events. If appropriate, prepayments may be reapplied to cure or prevent a borrower default. Servicers also may consider loan modification without VA’s prior approval if certain regulatory conditions are met. Although the holder of the loan is ultimately responsible for determining when to initiate foreclosure or complete termination action, the VA has requested a 90-day freeze on ...

The California Reinvestment Coalition last week called upon the Department of Housing and Urban Development to impose a moratorium to prevent CIT Group and its servicing subsidiary, Financial Freedom, from initiating any more reverse mortgage foreclosures. The CRC’s request is based in part on data it obtained from HUD indicating an unusually high foreclosure rate for Financial Freedom/CIT Group.According to the data, Financial Freedom’s 39 percent share of reverse mortgage foreclosures since April 2009 is more than two times greater than the company’s estimated market share. The CRC began looking into Financial Freedom’s foreclosure history after receiving complaints from a number of widowed homeowners and other heirs about Freedom’s foreclosure practices, said Kevin Stein, CRC associate director. Stein said the CRC filed a data request under the ...

U.S. Bank was the only top-five servicer that has been growing its portfolio…

G-fees – which have been rising in recent years – are ultimately paid by borrowers.

Two Harbors was the first – and thus far only – firm to issue a jumbo MBS with loans subject to the TRID mortgage disclosure rule.

Earlier this year, management signaled that the nonbank is considering its options...

Is the end near for servicing writedowns? Hedging marks?

Although several high-profile, publicly traded nonbank servicers are having a tough time turning a profit, non-depository institutions continued to build market share in mortgage servicing during the first quarter of 2016, a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking reveals. On the whole, mortgage servicing is somewhat stagnant. The top 50 servicers as of the end of March managed a combined portfolio of $7.266 trillion, down very slightly from the previous quarter. Servicing tied to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities managed a humble 0.2 percent gain in the first quarter, and the non-agency MBS market is still in the doldrums. It remains...[Includes two data tables]

When it comes to stock price performance, it’s been an ugly year so far in 2016 for most of the nation’s publicly traded nonbanks, especially if their names happen to be Nationstar Mortgage, Ocwen Financial, PHH Corp. and Walter Investment Management Corp. And you might as well throw Stonegate Mortgage into that club as well. According to figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance, these five firms have seen declines in their stock prices – as measured against their highs for the past year – ranging from 52.3 percent (Nationstar) to 82.1 percent (Ocwen). Two other nonbanks whose share prices haven’t suffered as much are...[Includes one data table]

The rising role of nonbanks in the Home Affordable Modification Program along with a perceived lack of oversight has a HAMP watchdog calling for greater regulation of nonbank servicers. Nonbank servicers currently handle the majority of loans in HAMP, a shift from the early years of the federal program when the majority of mortgages were serviced by large banks. In a report released last week, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program noted...