Underwater homeowners who have remained current on their payments and who can demonstrate a “hardship” may be eligible to relinquish their homes, cancel their mortgage debt and avoid the messy foreclosure process under the terms of a Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac policy change to take effect in March. The two government-sponsored enterprises will broaden the authority of their servicers to approve a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure to non-delinquent Fannie or Freddie borrowers who can no longer afford to stay in the home. Effective March 1, the new deed-in-lieu option is...

Norton Wells, senior vice president of Bank of America’s mortgage resolution team, has left the company, industry officials confirmed to Inside Mortgage Finance.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a field hearing scheduled for January 17 in Atlanta, and industry sources fully anticipate that the bureau will release its final mortgage servicing rule the night before.

Newcastle Investment Corp., a key player in the huge servicing sale recently unveiled by Bank of America, has raised roughly $538 million by selling 57.5 million shares of common stock in the open market.

JPMorgan Chase is joining the ranks of banks laying off loan review staff now that they’ve settled their foreclosure cases with the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve.

JPMorgan Chase marked up the asset value of its mortgage servicing rights by 8 percent in the fourth quarter to $7.6 billion and reported strong residential lending results, funding $51.2 billion of product, a slight gain from a very strong third quarter.

In a few weeks the White House will release its new budget and there’s increasing speculation that it will ask for $3 billion to $5 billion for the beleaguered FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund…

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued its final rules on residential servicing practices early Thursday morning, cracking down on dual tracking, and telling the industry it cannot engage in a foreclosure sale until “all other alternatives” are considered.

Mortgage firms that handle 5,000 or fewer loans will receive a significant exemption from servicing rules released today by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Although the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has finalized its servicing regulations, it likely will take a close look at the transfer of mortgage servicing rights – a business that has been booming of late, with most of the activity tied to “legacy” product.