News

Rep. Darrell Issa of California sent a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to inform them that he has found evidence that four current members of the House of Representatives received loans through a VIP loan program that has been under investigation since 2008. The loan program was operated by Countrywide as the ""Friends of Angelo"" program, named for CEO Angelo Mozilo.

Florida's mandatory foreclosure mediation program has come to an end. State Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Canady issued an order this week stating that no new cases may be referred to mediators as part of the court-run initiative and citing the program's lack of success in resolving foreclosure disputes between lenders and borrowers. Data released earlier this year showed that only 4 percent of eligible mediation cases ended in a settlement.

StreetLinks Lender Solutions has announced the launch of StreetLinks LVR, a new liquidation valuation report developed for mortgage servicers and asset management firms which is compliant with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP). LVRs are performed by StreetLinks' nationwide panel of licensed appraisers, taking into account property condition, comparables, and local market trends. The company says its approach will provide an objective analysis of a distressed property's liquidation price within a 90-day marketing window.

BestAssets has named Melvin Siemer to the position of EVP and director of asset management services, responsible for the national strategic growth of the company's operations and business development. Siemer leads a team of REO and default servicing professionals that service national, regional, and community banks, as well as credit unions and mortgage servicers. He also works closely with a national network of real estate brokers, subcontractors, appraisers, and property inspectors.

Homeowners who receive foreclosure prevention counseling are at least 67 percent more likely to be current on their loans nine months after a loan modification than those who do not, according to NeighborWorks America. Additionally, among homeowners who receive mortgage modifications, those who participate in counseling decrease their monthly payments by $176 more than those who do not. However, NeighborWorks says the reduced redefault rate is more a result of the counseling than the lower monthly payment.

JPMorgan Chase may soon be hit with a barrage of mortgage repurchase demands from investors, largely stemming from the lender's acquisitions of Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns. The Texas-based law firm of Gibbs & Bruns LLP says its investor clients have instructed the trustees of $95 billion in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) issued by JPMorgan to open investigations in order to determine if the mortgage bonds are secured by ineligible loans.

Lender Processing Services (LPS) has released new data detailing mortgage performance at November month-end. The most troubling statistic shows a nearly 3 percent month-over-month increase in the number of loans 30 or more days past due but not yet in foreclosure. LPS says 8.15 percent of the nation's mortgages fell into this category as of the end of November. That's up from 7.93 percent at the end of October and is the first time in four months the company has reported a rise in the national delinquency rate.

Following a month without a single bank failure, state and federal regulators stepped in over the weekend to seize community-based lenders in Arizona and Florida. This latest pair of closings brings the FDIC's tally of failed banks for the 2011 calendar year to 92. Officials with the FDIC say institutional failures stemming from the real estate downturn have peaked and are now trending lower. The 92 failures as of mid-December this year is indeed well below the 157 that became insolvent in 2010 and 140 in 2009.

Bank of America organized 45 dedicated outreach events this year in local markets across the country where the lender is seeing high levels of mortgage delinquencies among its customer base. Ron Sturzenegger, BofA's legacy asset servicing executive, says the goal is to get in front of the consumer. The company undertakes an aggressive marketing campaign ahead of each event and provides a loss mitigation decision on-site to 60 percent of those who come with all the necessary paperwork. BofA expects to host the same number of outreach events in 2012.

Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto has filed a lawsuit against Lender Processing Services (LPS), alleging the company executed fraudulent documents to support foreclosure proceedings. Masto's announcement came as a surprise, considering just last month LPS disclosed publicly that the attorney general's office assured the company it was not a target of the state's investigation, which has already resulted in the indictment of six former LPS employees for alleged robo-signing abuses.