A sharp turnaround by the two biggest banks in the mortgage banking business led to a significant increase in aggregate mortgage banking income reported by commercial banks in the first quarter. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis and ranking reveals that banks reported a combined $4.215 billion in noninterest income on their mortgage banking activities during the first quarter of 2011. That was up 20.8 percent from the industry’s $3.488 billion in mortgage banking income during the fourth quarter of 2010. But in the top-heavy mortgage banking market, the results were skewed dramatically by the performance of... [Includes one data chart]

Nationstar Mortgage Holdings aims to raise $400 million through the sale of common stock to finance new growth opportunities in subservicing delinquent home loans, as well as in originating and securitizing new mortgages. Texas-based Nationstar, the home finance unit of Fortress Investment Group, announced the filing of an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Nationstar said it sees opportunities in the current residential mortgage market for non-bank servicers to grow their portfolios by acquiring mortgage servicing rights, entering into subservicing contracts and by assuming responsibilities for...

Credit card giant Discover Financial Services is adding mortgages to its menu of financial products and services with the acquisition of Home Loan Center, a subsidiary of Tree.com. The sale price for Home Loan Center, which operates as LendingTree Loans, is up to $56.0 million. LendingTree, a correspondent lender, originates and processes home loans in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The acquisition includes substantially all of HLC’s operating and related assets as well as LendingTree’s lead-generation system, adding a residential mortgage origination component to Discover’s direct lending system. Discover, a direct banking and...

Lenders clamoring for a hand hold around the slippery issue of “strategic defaulters” do have options in the form of technology and legal leverage to tackle the issue even as the problem may not be as pronounced as first thought, say experts. The problem of borrowers who otherwise have the capacity to make their mortgage payments but instead opt to walk away from the loan was once a fringe issue in the industry. But strategic default became a bigger concern as more and more borrowers found they owed more on their home than the house was worth, according to Brent Taggart, senior vice president at Green River Capital, a Utah-based real estate owned management and...

Mortgage lenders that are anxious about complying with the call report requirements of the National Mortgage Licensing System might want to consider a new automated solution developed by LendingSpace, a Fulton, MD-based technology firm. “Lenders who find themselves using a patchwork of their existing technologies to meet these requirements will spend a great deal of time and resources to ensure impeccable compliance,” said Ravi Varma, CEO of LendingSpace. “With a click of a mouse, the Automated Mortgage Call Report function in our ComplianceOne suite gathers the information from the loan origination system, and formats it so that it’s ready for...

Mortgage servicers have made little headway trying to de-bunk the widespread belief that foreclosures are profitable transactions for lenders, but a new Mortgage Bankers Association report tries to explain the impact of defaults on servicing income. Servicing advances are reimbursed when a modification is completed within 45 days, the study notes. Because they occur earlier than a foreclosure, mods limit the amount of money the servicer has to advance to investors on delinquent accounts, the trade group said. “The servicer’s reimbursement is at the top of the waterfall, meaning the servicer’s advances, which may have been from...

Home purchase mortgage activity is limping along in 2011 as high levels of both distressed properties and cash sales continue to weigh down the housing market. According to new numbers released by the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey, the Distressed Property Index decreased slightly in April but still remained at an elevated level of 47.7 percent. An abundance of distressed properties in the housing market is cutting into home purchase lending. The new HousingPulse Survey results show that the share of damaged real estate owned – the hardest sector of home sales to obtain traditional financing – jumped from [Includes one graph]

Mortgage delinquency rates improved in almost all categories, and although they’re still high, it could signal a positive turning point, according to recent reports. The Inside Mortgage Finance Larger Servicer Delinquency Index showed an overall delinquency rate at 10.27 percent in the first quarter, down from 11.25 percent in 4Q10, and the lowest seen since the 9.39 percent rate in 1Q09. Improvements were seen in every category of delinquency from last quarter. Loans 30-60 days delinquent went from 2.81 percent to 2.41 percent, 60-90 days delinquent from 1.25 percent to 1.01 percent and loans over 90 days delinquent from... [Includes one data chart]

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will host workshops for directors of nationally chartered community banks and federal savings associations in New York at the Hilton New York, June 28-29, 2011...

Staff at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and other legal professionals are scrutinizing the fundamental questions the foreclosure crisis has raised about the adequacy of the legal framework for modern mortgage note transactions, especially when it comes to transferring and enforcing notes and mortgages, and how best to resolve them. The role of the Mortgage Electronic Registration System is a part of the discussion. To date, they are relying upon a number of issues that have been identified in a draft discussion document prepared recently by the Permanent Editorial Board of the Uniform Commercial Code, in conjunction with...