An increasing number of financial institutions with a vested interest in mortgage servicing rights are showing a renewed interest in hedging against declining interest rates – something you might think they would already be doing. “You’d be surprised at who’s not hedging,” said Austin Tilghman, senior vice president of United Capital Markets, Denver. “Some mid-sized nonbanks just don’t get it.” Tilghman knows quite a bit about firms – banks included – that don’t ...

The funding models used by prominent nonbank servicers subject the firms to significant risks, according to Moody’s Investors Service, which predicted that the companies’ profitability will improve only marginally in 2016. The Moody’s analysis focused on Nationstar Mortgage, Ocwen Financial and Walter Investment Management. “All three nonbank servicers’ reliance on confidence-sensitive, short-term funding heightens their liquidity and refinancing risk,” said Warren Kornfeld ...

Molly Boesel, a senior economist at CoreLogic, noted that in judicial states, servicers must provide evidence of delinquency to the courts in order to move a borrower into foreclosure.

The publicly traded servicer/originator took in $330.7 million in revenue, a 35.2 percent decline from 1Q15. Its origination revenue was a meager $23.2 million…

Thanks to rising loan applications and a stronger-than-anticipated start to the second quarter, merger and acquisition activity in the mortgage industry is at muted levels these days, according to investment banking officials. In other words, lenders will continue to “make hay while the sun shines,” believing that current profit margins are just too good right now to consider selling out. It was originally thought...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s latest monthly report on consumer complaints finds that borrowers who are having a hard time staying current on their mortgages are still having problems with their servicers. The bureau said 51 percent of gripes involved problems homeowners faced when they were unable to make their mortgage payments. Consumers continued...

The performance of mortgages originated in recent years remains strong, pushing down delinquency rates across loan types. However, liquidation timelines for certain loans have hit new highs recently as servicers continue to work on foreclosing mortgages that went into default years ago. As of the end of March, the overall delinquency rate on mortgages declined to 4.08 percent, according to Black Knight Financial Services. The delinquency rate declined by 12.4 percent compared with March 2015 and is at its lowest point since March 2007. The foreclosure pre-sale inventory rate was...

The New York State Supreme Court recently reversed a ruling in a foreclosure case, providing a favorable decision for lenders and servicers. New York Community Bank v. Daphne McClendon involved a foreclosure that was initiated in 2012. The mortgage in question was originated in 2008 by AmTrust Bank for $544,000. The note accompanying the mortgage was signed by electronic signature. The borrower challenged...

Will President Trump (if elected) tax mortgage servicers that use offshore workers?

Consumers said they received conflicting and confusing foreclosure notifications during the loss mitigation review process...