News

Over the weekend, regulators closed down Manhattan's Park Avenue Bank, citing ineffective management and inadequate capital. And on Monday morning, the failed bank's former president and chief executive, Charles J. Antonucci Sr., found himself in handcuffs - the first person to be charged by the federal government with defrauding the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

With short sales gaining in popularity among lenders and homeowners alike, and the implementation date of the administration's Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program just around the corner, Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS) is making moves to help servicers respond to short sale offers more efficiently. The Florida-based technology provider announced the launch of its professional short sale service Tuesday.

The Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) guaranteed more than $29.3 billion in mortgage-backed securities (MBS) in February, the association announced Monday. Total single-family issuance for February was more than $28 billion, Ginnie Mae's multifamily MBS issuance was more than $730 million.

Sen. Christopher Dodd introduced legislation Monday that outlines a revamp of the nation's financial regulatory system. The long-awaited reform bill calls for the creation of an ""independent"" Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to regulate mortgages and other loan products. It also establishes a systemic risk council, which has the authority to force complex firms to divest some of their holdings if they become ""too big to fail,"" and it requires the largest financial firms to contribute to a $50 billion fund that would be used to pay for future financial collapses.

With the expiration of several key government support programs looming, loss severities on distressed U.S. residential mortgage loans are likely to escalate, Fitch Ratings recently reported. The expiration in the coming months of both the homebuyer tax credit and the Federal Reserve's $1.25 trillion mortgage-backed securities (MBS) purchase program will increase negative pressure on home prices and loss severities.

In an effort to develop new strategies for stabilizing neighborhoods that experience large numbers of foreclosures, dozens of local officials from 12 of the regions hit hardest by the housing crisis are meeting at Harvard University this week for the Neighborhood Stabilization Boot Camp.

Default servicing software provider Equator announced Monday that the company's platform is automating over 125,000 active short sales. Short sales are becoming an increasingly vital strategy for lenders in their struggle to clear underperforming assets. Equator stresses that the keys to a successful short sale are accessibility, responsiveness, communication and fulfillment.

Bank of America completed 20,666 permanent modifications under the Home Affordable Modification Program as of February 28, 2010, up from 12,761 a month earlier. The bank also has 22,303 additional permanent HAMP modifications that are pending and leads the mortgage servicing industry with more than 240,000 active trial modifications under HAMP.

As of February 28, 2010, Wells Fargo & Co. had 505,832 active trial and completed modifications through its own modification programs and the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). According to the administration's February HAMP report card released Friday, Wells Fargo completed more permanent modifications than any other HAMP servicer.

The tally of bank casualties in the wake of the real estate downturn and the ensuing economic crisis continues to swell. This weekend, regulators shut the doors on four more regional lenders - two in New York and one each in Florida and Louisiana. That brings the number of institutions on the FDIC's failed bank list to 30 for the year.