A handful of nonbank lenders are stepping up to the plate, offering mortgages to borrowers who are just one day removed from a foreclosure or short sale. But there’s a catch: many of the lenders willing to extend such credit want at least 20 percent down. Also, as it turns out, the trend is being funded by commercial banks that are serving as the end investors in the product. Two banks – one in California and one in New York – were identified...

American International Group is reportedly bringing to market $300 million in securitized notes backed by mortgage insurance written by its private MI subsidiary United Guaranty Corp., but the global insurance company is playing it close to the vest. AIG and United Guaranty are keeping details of the risk-transfer transaction under wraps and a spokesperson for UG declined to comment. Credit Suisse is the seller of the notes. Citing company marketing documents, Bloomberg reported...

Wells Fargo won key victories last week with the dismissal of two lawsuits in Chicago and Los Angeles alleging reverse redlining in the cities’ minority neighborhoods, resulting in high foreclosure rates, reduced property values and lost property tax revenues. The lawsuits accused Wells Fargo of targeting minority areas in the two cities with higher-cost loans, even though they could not afford such loans. Eventually, many borrowers defaulted on their mortgages and lost their homes to foreclosures. This, in turn, left many vacant homes throughout neighborhoods, driving down property values and costing counties and cities billions of dollars in efforts to eliminate urban blight. In Chicago, a federal district court judge said...

Some consultants and analysts would add Stonegate Mortgage to the list of negatives weighing on the mortgage equities market.

MSRs purchased by Hatteras will be held at Pingora Loan Servicing with the "excess" receivables going to the parent company due tax benefits enjoyed by REITs.

Inside the GSEs found that Freddie’s business was more concentrated than Fannie’s...

The loans are being serviced in-house by the seller on a Black Knight servicing system.

To date, RoundPoint has declined to discuss the sale process or much of anything else with the media.

First-time homebuyer mortgages acquired by the GSEs performed worse than repeat homebuyer mortgages, said the Federal Housing Finance Agency in a new working paper. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they are riskier. Although the study found first-time homebuyers likely to face more mortgage-related challenges, the FHFA said the difference is based on demographics. “They are younger, and have lower credit scores, lower home equity, and less income and therefore are less likely to withstand financial stress or take advantage of financial innovations available in the market than repeat homebuyers,” said Saty Patrabansh, senior economist and author of the white paper. However, once these differences are taken into account he said there appears to be no difference between first-timer and repeat homebuyers in their probability of default.

Consumer advocates are calling for reforms that would address servicers’ use of property preservation companies in instances where a home appears to be vacant and scheduled for foreclosure. In recent years, more than 250 lawsuits have been filed in at least 35 states against property management firms who were acting on behalf of servicers, according to Christopher Odinet, an assistant professor of law at the Southern University Law Center. In a paper published ...