Loss Mitigation

The depreciation of home values over the past half-decade has left millions of mortgage borrowers owing more than their home is worth -- 10.7 million, according to CoreLogic. The company's latest negative equity study found 22.1 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage were underwater as of the end of September. That's down from 22.5 percent - or 10.9 million - at the end of the second quarter, but CoreLogic says the number remains high and makes borrowers more vulnerable to economic shocks such as job loss or illness.

The Office of the Inspector General for the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA-OIG) submitted its semiannual report to Congress reviewing FHFA's actions from April 2011 through September 2011. The FHFA-OIG pointed out several positive developments over the six-month period, including an elimination of the ""golden parachute"" compensation packages often offered to terminated GSE executives. However, these were balanced by a list of areas in need of improvement, most notably that FHFA does not conduct its own reviews of critical operations.

While incidences of mortgage fraud have remained steady over the past six quarters overall, submissions of fraudulent employment/income information are on the rise, according to the latest Mortgage Fraud Risk Index by Interthinx. Employment/income fraud on mortgage applications increased 8.8 percent during the third quarter of 2011. The sharp turns in this category of fraud throughout the past few years reveal certain market occurrences.

ServiceLink announced Tuesday that the company has appointed Chris Azur president. Azur served as EVP and COO of ServiceLink for the last four years. His areas of responsibility included the valuations, title, and closing operations for both the loan origination and default services markets. Prior to joining ServiceLink, Azur was with ATM Corporation. There he held the positions of EVP and COO from the time the company was established in 1993.

CoreLogic has announced a new set of services designed specifically to address the anticipated increase in refinance activity expected from revisions to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). Many lenders are expected to look to third-party providers to help them manage the expected spike in mortgage refinancing. CoreLogic says its new HARP 2.0 offerings will combine the company's data and analytics with experienced teams of outsourcing professionals to improve operational pull-through.

About 2.5 percent of current mortgage balances in the U.S. transitioned into delinquency during the third quarter, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Monday. That assessment reverses a recent trend of reductions in the measure of newly delinquent mortgage balances, going back to the third quarter of 2010. Some 264,000 individuals had a foreclosure notation added to their credit reports between June 30 and September 30. New bankruptcies over the period tallied 423,000.

Holistic financial counseling -- that which focuses on a borrower's entire financial situation -- can prevent both foreclosures and re-defaults, according to a recent study sponsored by special servicer Outreach Financial Services. Holistic financial counseling can save servicers up to $71.5 million in losses on a portfolio of 10,000 loans, according to the study. When holistic counselors review a borrower's entire financial status, they are generally able to diminish monthly spending by $200 to $300.

Bad real estate loans from the boom years of the last decade have forced 412 FDIC-insured lenders to shutter their operations since the start of 2008. No institution's balance sheet has been fully insulated from the downturn in the real estate markets, but data released by the FDIC suggests lenders are finding their way out of the storm. After rising since 2006, the FDIC's so-called ""Problem List"" of banks at risk of failure has contracted for two quarters in a row. At the same time, money set aside to cover expected loan losses has fallen nearly 50 percent from a year ago.

While the attorneys general working toward a settlement with the nation's largest servicers may be able to strike a settlement without California, it may cost them. A deal that seemed likely imminent as of the end of October would have required $25 billion from the banks - $5 billion in cash penalties and $20 billion in refinancings and modifications. That $25 billion could be reduced to $18.5 billion if California refuses to take part in the settlement, and it could limit the amount of assistance provided to California homeowners.

The PMI Group, Inc. says it has filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. According to PMI, the move is a direct result of the seizure of its subsidiaries PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. and PMI Insurance Co. by the Arizona Department of Insurance on October 20, 2011. PMI sought to overturn the regulator's seizure of its mortgage insurance operations, but that motion was denied on Friday.