Acquisitions of large non-agency portfolios by Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase resulted in poor servicing performance, according to a new analysis by Moody’s Investors Service. Successful borrower-contact initiatives, meanwhile, resulted in significantly improved servicing performance for others. “Integrating the servicing platforms, employees, processes, and technologies into their servicing operations overwhelmed the banks, reducing their ability to proactively address the increased number of problem loans in their combined portfolios,” Moody’s said. ...

Smaller issuers of Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities will find it easier to pledge mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) to obtain warehouse financing and better compete with their larger rivals, thanks to changes announced recently by Ginnie Mae. Changes to the “Acknowledgment Agreement” will make it simpler for Ginnie Mae to honor servicing pledges and allow the transfer of related servicing rights. They also clarify and limit the conditions under which Ginnie Mae can deny an issuer’s request to transfer servicing to the issuer’s creditor. Under the previous 2007 procedures, an issuer seeking Ginnie Mae’s approval to pledge its rights to servicing income as a security for a loan from a private lender must ...

Long-term investor involvement is the industry’s best bet and “only realistic alternative” to boost housing demand and allow government housing agencies to meaningfully discharge their backlog of real estate owned properties, according to a report by Amherst Securities Group. However, Amherst notes that private investors will require more financing options and better access to bulk portfolios of homes, perhaps through a government program, in order to absorb and convert dormant distressed properties into active, income-producing rentals. “The massive housing market overhang is a clear danger to the U.S. economy – it creates...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency needs to explain why it hired expensive outside counsel instead of dispatching government lawyers in its massive litigation against the nation’s big financial institutions, as well as just how much the agency expects to recoup from the effort, according to a senior Republican congressman.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued $177.19 billion in single-family mortgage-backed securities during the third quarter of 2011, a modest 14.3 percent improvement following two straight quarterly declines during the first six months of this year.The recent July-September cycle represented one of the weakest quarters historically for GSE MBS production since the financial markets crashed at the end of 2008.

Small and mid-sized lenders participating in the Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities program may gain more financing flexibility – and a more competitive footing against the giants in the market – as the agency makes it easier to pledge mortgage servicing rights. Ginnie this week announced a revised Acknowledgement Agreement that will make it simpler for the agency to honor servicing pledges and permit the transfer of MSRs. Until now, Ginnie servicers that need cash to honor their servicing advance responsibilities have not been able to put their MSRs up as collateral for financing, explained Ted Tozer, president of Ginnie Mae, in...

Servicers face increased costs to meet new loss mitigation requirements. However, servicers at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual conference this week in Chicago said they have accepted the costs as a trade-off for decreased liability. “We focus on profitability, but you still have to do quality,” said Kent Lemon, a senior vice president at Saxon Mortgage Services. He said the servicer constantly works on quality assurance. Saxon uses targeted performance monitoring of employees for the Servicemembers' Civil Relief Act, fair servicing standards and other loan modification guidelines. Lemon said the servicer also...

Despite low mortgage rates and home prices, significant barriers still stand in the way of a potential first-time homebuyer. A new tax-preferred mechanism for downpayment savings could work towards lowering these barriers, with the added benefit of incentivizing saving habits, according to a policy brief from the Progressive Policy Institute. The “HomeK” account would be carved out of savings mechanisms such as individual retirement accounts and 401(k) accounts allowing a person to separate up to 50 percent of employee contributions into a sub-account. Account-holders could then disburse their money to make a...

A scathing criticism of the way the Federal Housing Finance Agency and Freddie Mac handled a $1.35 billion settlement with Bank of America could cause the regulator and the government-sponsored enterprises to tighten repurchase enforcement – and consequently inflate the buyback problem, according to litigation experts. Speaking on a recent webinar hosted by Inside Mortgage Finance, experts said a report by the FHFA’s Office of the Inspector General which found flaws in the BofA settlement approval process, could push the GSEs and their regulator to lean harder on major lenders to repurchase “bad loans.” This, in turn, could...

A ruling by a federal district court in Richmond awarding more than $40 million to a mortgage lender for covered losses should compel private mortgage insurers to be more circumspect about their MI agreements, according to industry attorneys. American International Group, parent company of United Guaranty Residential Insurance Co. of North Carolina, is appealing the court’s ruling that it pay SunTrust Mortgage more than $34.0 million for covered losses, $6.0 million in stipulated interest and about $5.4 million in legal fees and costs. Joseph Norton, AIG spokesman, said the insurer has appealed the decision to the...