Despite a slowdown during its final lap, 2017 was a strong year for sales of agency mortgage servicing rights, according to a new analysis of mortgage-backed securities data by Inside Mortgage Trends.The market saw some $538.49 billion of agency servicing rights change hands last year, a 22.0 percent increase from 2016. Most of the MSR transfers were bulk transactions, which totaled $406.78 billion, a huge 51.1 percent jump from the previous year. Bulk deals ... [Includes three data charts]
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Top compliance attorneys warn that multiple state attorneys general will follow through on their vow to step up more aggressively to counteract any lessening of enforcement zeal at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the new command of Acting Director Mark Mulvaney. During a webinar this week sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance, Melanie Brody, a partner with the Mayer Brown law firm in Washington, DC, elaborated on that view. “I think it’s really important for ...
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Financial services provider Situs is two weeks away from closing on its purchase of MountainView Financial Solutions, Denver, one of the most active brokers of mortgage servicing rights in the nation. Once the transaction is completed, it will mark the second significant residential-related purchase of the past seven months for the New York-based Situs, which bills itself as a “global provider of business solutions for real estate and financial service firms.” Back in May ...
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Distributed ledger technology known as blockchain has the potential to transform back-end functions in mortgage origination, servicing and secondary marketing, according to industry participants. Blockchain has gained some prominence as virtual currencies such as bitcoin are reliant on the technology. Tim Willis, head of the governance and controls practice at RiskSpan, an analytics firm, said reporting of servicing data to investors hasn’t changed much in the past two decades ...
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PennyMac is leaping into the wholesale-broker channel with its new Power platform as it eyes increased purchase-money and jumbo mortgage originations. The company’s enhanced production platform will provide mortgage brokers broad access to data, allowing them to proactively manage their pipelines, according to executives at the California-based firm. “Power is a proven, best-in-class platform,” said Kimberly Nichols, managing director of PennyMac’s ...
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A data breach involving United Shore Financial Services and Xerox has prompted a class-action lawsuit from borrowers and a legal battle between the lender and the loan document software vendor. United Shore is the parent company of United Wholesale Mortgage, a major player in the wholesale channel. In 2011, United Shore was using BlitzDocs to process and store loan documents. At the time, the software program was operated by Xerox Mortgage Services. Al Leibovic, a borrower, filed ...
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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw a 27.2 percent surge in refinance business during the fourth quarter that helped offset an 8.3 percent drop in purchase-mortgage acquisitions, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of mortgage-backed securities data. The wholesale-broker channel recorded a 7.4 percent increase in production during the fourth quarter, compared to smaller increases in retail (2.6 percent) and correspondent (6.0 percent) ... [Includes one data chart]
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