Commercial banks and thrifts continued to back away from the business of servicing home mortgages for other investors during the second quarter of 2015, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call reports. At the end of June, the industry owned the servicing rights on $4.187 trillion of home loans held by other investors, typically as a result of mortgage securitization. That was down $94.2 billion from the previous quarter, a 2.2 percent decline ... [Includes one data chart]

Declines in negative equity and improvements to the economy have prompted a shift in the types of loan modifications offered by servicers. Industry analysts have raised concerns that the increased reliance on capitalization loan mods could lead to an increase in defaults. With a capitalization mod, servicers add unpaid mortgage interest and other costs to the unpaid loan balance and amortize the new balance, potentially with a new loan term or interest rate ...

At mid year 2015, PennyMac was the nation’s 12th largest servicer, according to a ranking from Inside Mortgage Finance.

Besides Fidelity, other institutional investors have slashed their holdings in the company, fearing that its best days are behind it.

Although the bulk market has faced headwinds in recent weeks, the “flow” servicing market has been “robust,” Piercy said.

Many left-leaning politicians have complained that Wall Street executives got off the hook for the financial crisis...

Home-equity lending jumped to its strongest level in seven years during the second quarter of 2015, but most depository institutions continued to see declining balances in their home-equity portfolios, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. An estimated $24.0 billion of home-equity lines-of-credit and second mortgages were originated during the second quarter, up 23.1 percent from the first three months of the year. It was the highest production level since the second quarter of 2008. Although the Federal Reserve won’t release an official figure for home-equity loans outstanding at the end of June until next week, call-report data suggest...[Includes three data tables]

Industry trade groups are calling for the withdrawal of a proposed servicing rule that would set new deadlines for filing FHA insurance claims and penalize lenders with termination of insurance coverage if they failed to comply. Banks, independent mortgage lenders and credit unions warn that FHA’s proposed changes to its claims regulations could result in higher interest rates, credit restrictions and lenders exiting from the FHA program. Such effects could be magnified in the hardest hit housing markets, particularly in states that have long foreclosure timelines or older housing stock. The FHA proposal addresses...

UST did not identify the mortgage firm selling the product, but described it as “well capitalized” and in “good standing” with Ginnie Mae.

Coester filed suit against the Virginia Real Estate Appraiser Board, charging that the regulator is engaged in “a conspiracy to restrain and monopolize trade” and is operating in violation of antitrust laws.