U.S. Bank, one of the largest residential lenders and servicers in the nation, has a new president.

Steve Stein, national sales director, has departed Green Tree Servicing, but the company isn't returning telephone calls and emails about the matter.

Wells Fargo is in the hunt for a top servicing executive to aid the bank in its pursuit of MSR sales, sources told Inside Mortgage Finance.

In two weeks the White House will meet with some of the largest residential funders in the U.S. But will President Obama show?

Bank of America is once again offering for sale a large package of mortgage servicing rights and at least a half-dozen or so buyers are lining up to bid.

Will FHA need a government bailout? Better read the new Obama budget document.

The independent foreclosure review process established by federal regulators for 14 servicers was “deeply flawed,” Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, said on Thursday in response to a report on the reviews by the Government Accountability Office. Waters said she will introduce legislation next week to address problems relating to use of outside contractors for enforcement actions.

Major banks significantly increased their use of principal reduction loan modifications in 2012, according to new data from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The eight banks and one thrift tracked by the OCC completed 126,283 principal reduction mods in 2012, up from 43,396 the previous year. Principal reduction was used on 20.0 percent of all loss mitigation actions taken by the firms in the fourth quarter, up from an 8.5 percent share in the fourth quarter of 2011. Mortgages in non-agency MBS ...

The FHA may allow a borrower’s 401(k) retirement fund to be included in the calculation of debt-to-income (DTI) ratio, according to the agency. Normally, up to 60 percent of the fund’s value may be included in the DTI ratio, the agency said. Fund assets, such as Individual Retirement Accounts, thrift savings plans, 401(k) retirement plan and Keogh Accounts, may be counted in the underwriting, it added. The rule remains applicable unless the borrower presents proof that a higher percentage may be withdrawn after subtracting any federal income tax and withdrawal penalties. In such cases, the lender would ...

The Internal Revenue Service has guidelines for lender cancellation or forgiveness of debt – and the FHA has none. This, however, may be somewhat more complex than it may first appear, cautioned an FHA spokesman. On the one hand, the FHA has no guidelines on the forgiveness or cancellation of mortgage debt that it insures. If the lender wants to cancel some of the borrower’s outstanding indebtedness, it does not need to ask FHA’s permission under normal circumstances, the spokesman made clear. However, the lender may not then try to recover the ...