News

Lender Processing Services (LPS) announced Wednesday that Jeffrey S. Carbiener has stepped down from his positions as CEO, president, and company director for health-related reasons, effective immediately. The Florida-based firm has established a committee to search for new leadership. In the interim, Lee A. Kennedy, executive chairman of the board and former CEO of LPS's prior parent company, Fidelity National Information Services, Inc., will take on the responsibilities of president and CEO.

Sales of government-owned REOs have been delayed in New England, but HUD says it's working to expedite a fix. Closings in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, and Vermont are expected to begin later this month. In Massachusetts and New Hampshire, REO closings have already resumed. HUD says buyer demand has been so great, it has already exhausted the money that was allocated to cover third-party disposition fees. Contracts will be extended at no cost to the buyer until additional funding is put into place.

HOPE LoanPort, a proprietary, Web-based tool used by non-profit housing counselors, housing finance agencies, investors, and major mortgage servicers, recently added North Dakota to its roster, making it live in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The nonprofit organization, which recently completed its first full year of operation, allows housing counselors to submit an application, including the upload of homeowner documents, for home retention in a secure environment.

For the first time since the credit crisis began in 2008, the delinquency rate on loans held in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) has fallen for two consecutive months. After a modest reduction in May, the research firm Trepp LLC says the delinquency rate fell 23 basis points in June to 9.37 percent. Unfortunately, the company says, the rate reduction was driven primarily by a sharp spike in loans being resolved with losses, rather than delinquent loans actually curing.

Rep. Gary Miller of California is introducing a new idea for GSE reform - a merger of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The bill, drafted by Miller and co-sponsored by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York, suggests the resulting entity would purchase mortgages and sell them to investors as government-backed securities. According to Miller, the new corporation would be privately capitalized but not privately owned, and would be limited to a market share of no more than 50 percent.

Washington Mutual Inc.'s former executives, underwriters, and auditor reached a $208.5 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit by investors. The Seattle-based institution was the largest U.S. bank to fail, and this settlement is one of the largest resulting from the financial crisis. The class-action suit combined more than 20 cases in which investors claimed the bank misrepresented its financial condition when its loans began to fail after careless underwriting and inflated appraisals.

eMortgage Logic (EML), a Texas-based property valuations provider, recently introduced beta testing of its new mobile application. The application is offered to its nationwide broker network on a limited basis for the first 30 days, and full implementation is expected in August 2011. The EML app allows agents to accept orders, review open and pending orders, and map subject properties in the field via smart phones and tablets.

Green River Capital, an REO asset management and loss mitigation provider headquartered in West Valley, Utah, announced recently that Lorenz Schwarz has joined the company as chief operating officer. Schwarz will also supervise the operations of the company's sister firms Green River Financial, a short sale company, and Infinity Valuation Services, a BPO provider.

More than 5,000 Washington state homeowners have been invited by Wells Fargo to participate in a free workshop this Thursday and Friday in Bellevue. Designed for borrowers facing financial hardships, the two-day workshop targets Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Wells Fargo Financial, Wachovia Mortgage, and Wells Fargo Home Equity customers. The Washington event is Wells Fargo's 16th home preservation workshop in 2011.

Private mortgage insurers had more new notices of default to contend with during the month of May than they had loan cures. It was the first time in four months that defaults outnumbered cures. Mortgage Insurance Companies of America (MICA) says its five members reported 44,853 defaults and 36,159 cures in May. Private mortgage insurers help loan originators and investors make mortgage funds available to homebuyers who have less than 20 percent for a down payment.