Once upon a time, in the third quarter of 2005, Countrywide Financial became the first company to amass a mortgage servicing portfolio of over $1 trillion. Just three years later, the company would be consumed by a hungry giant, Bank of America, which in the process became the first – and only – $2 trillion mortgage servicer. During the second quarter of 2013, BofA gave up its chair in the $1 trillion servicing club, reporting a 16.7 percent drop in its portfolio that left the company with “just” $988.6 billion in servicing. Since peaking at an industry record of $2.160 trillion at the end of 2009, BofA has managed to shrink its portfolio by a whopping 54.2 percent. The bank shed...[Includes one data chart]

State and federal regulators appear to be close to getting more servicers to agree to a settlement similar to the $25 billion deal agreed to by five big banks.

Bank of America continues to drop servicing and dropped to third in the ranking of servicers as of the second quarter of 2013.

Mortgage real estate investment trusts can draw some guidance from a recent private-letter ruling from the Internal Revenue Service on whether excess spread on mortgage servicing rights can be deemed as real-estate assets for REIT purposes. According to a recently released IRS private-letter ruling dated April 12, certain excess servicing rights would constitute a real-estate asset, and income from the spread would be treated as interest on obligations secured by mortgages on real property, for purposes of tax rules governing REITs. MSRs generally represent...

The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program is pressing the Treasury Department to focus on servicer actions as part of efforts to reduce re-default rates in the Home Affordable Modification Program. The Treasury has pushed back against the suggestions, stating that it is “always looking to improve the program.” In a report published last week, the SIGTARP said HAMP mods have re-defaulted at an “alarming” rate. As of the end of April, the re-default rate on HAMP mods completed in 2009 was 46 percent and the re-default rate for HAMP mods completed in 2010 was 38 percent. “While HAMP has helped...

Richmond, CA, is set to become the first city to implement the highly controversial eminent domain plan offered by Mortgage Resolution Partners.

Everbank is closing its wholesale business with mortgage brokers.

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-OR, is continuing his pursuit to expand the Home Affordable Refinance Program to non-agency borrowers.

Freddie Mac's CFO said the "true value" provided by the government-sponsored enterprises isn't billions of dollars in profits. Meanwhile, firms continue to pursue mortgage servicing rights.

The House Financial Services Committee recently voted 30‐27 to approve H.R. 2767, the Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners (PATH) Act, the housing reform bill introduced by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R‐TX, the committee chairman. Among the bill’s Title IV provisions are a handful of “regulatory relief” overrides to various CFPB mortgage-related rulemakings. For example, Section 403 includes changes to the points-and-fees definitions for the “qualified mortgage”/ability-to-repay rule that also were included in H.R 1077...