News

Safeguard Properties has announced the appointment of George Mehok as the company's chief information officer (CIO). Mehok is responsible for all information technology-related resources and assets. Safeguard explained that he will play an active role in identifying strategies, plans, and opportunities to apply technology and related solutions to support the company's growth and business evolution.

The national unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent as the U.S. economy added no new jobs during the month of August, according to figures released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor. Analysts were expecting some semblance of job growth in the highly anticipated report, although forecasts were all over the map, from as high as 93,000 new jobs to as low as 16,000 and everywhere in between - representative of just how disjointed the economy itself has become in recent months.

Treasury has released the results of its second-quarter assessment of servicers participating in the Making Home Affordable program. Officials say they will continue to withhold program incentives owed to Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase. The two were determined to need ""substantial improvement"" in key areas including borrower evaluations. BofA and JPMorgan received the same score last quarter, as did Wells Fargo, but Wells has now elevated its grade to needing ""moderate improvement.""

Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota continues to express concerns that the new rules regarding ratings agencies are not addressing fundamental issues with ratings procedures. Franken, along with other congressmen and policymakers, believes ratings agencies inflated assessments of mortgage-backed securities and that these inflated ratings ultimately led to the financial crisis. During a conference call hosted by Americans for Financial Reform, Franken and others spoke out on the inherent conflict of interest they see within ratings procedures.

Mortgage rates, for the most part, headed lower this week. Data from Freddie Mac shows that the 30-year fixed rate remained unchanged over the past week, while all other loan products in the GSE's survey dropped. The 5-year adjustable-rate mortgage set a new all-time record low at 2.96 percent, having fallen for the eighth consecutive week. The 30-year rate held at 4.22 percent, while the 15-year rate slipped to 3.39 percent.

Nevada is asking to be cut loose from a multi-state settlement agreement reached in October 2008 with Bank of America following its acquisition of Countrywide just four months earlier. BofA struck a deal with Nevada and several other states agreeing to provide up to $8.4 billion in interest and principal reductions for Countrywide borrowers. Nevada's attorney general claims the bank has breached that agreement and is asking to be released from it. BofA says it will defend itself against the allegations.

HOPE LoanPort announced Wednesday that Camillo T. Melchiorre will assume the role of president and CEO, effective September 1st. He replaces Larry Gilmore, co-founder of HOPE LoanPort and president and CEO since 2009, who has stepped down to pursue other opportunities. Melchiorre led the HOPE NOW Alliance Technology Committee that resulted in the creation of HOPE LoanPort and has served as a member of the board of directors since its inception.

MountainView Servicing Group announced Wednesday that it has been retained as the exclusive sale advisor for a $485 million Fannie Mae servicing portfolio. Ninety-nine percent of the portfolio consists of fixed-rate loans, primarily located in Illinois. The delinquency rate of the portfolio is 2.21 percent. MountainView is also marketing a $45 million portfolio of Ginnie Mae servicing rights.

Celink, a reverse mortgage subservicer, has implemented a single point of contact (SPOC) module for its clients' borrowers who are in default status. The company's servicing platform auto-assigns a borrower in default to a Celink associate. This associate works exclusively with the borrower until they remedy the default. They will remain the borrower's SPOC through the remediation or foreclosure process. Celink SPOCs are only assigned to a small number of accounts so that associates can provide personalized service.

Mortgage servicers completed 56,000 permanent loan modifications through their own proprietary assistance programs during the month of July, according to figures released Wednesday by HOPE NOW. July's tally represents an 11 percent increase over the 50,000 proprietary mods reported in June. At the same time, foreclosure sales fell by 11 percent month-to-month and newly initiated foreclosure actions slipped 5 percent. HOPE NOW also found that the redefault rate for proprietary modifications is 20 percent.