Secondary Market

The administration is looking into ways to support greater private sector involvement in the secondary market for home mortgages. Officials are weighing a proposal that would allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to sell off portions of their mortgage-backed securities (MBS) to private investors. These MBS carve-outs would not carry a federal guarantee but would pay a higher interest rate. A pilot program could be rolled out as early as next year to test private investors' willingness to share some of the risk carried by the GSEs.

Sabal Financial Group, L.P., the financial services management firm formerly known as Milestone Asset Resolution Company, said this week that it recently acquired a $153 million portfolio from a major Midwest retail bank. The portfolio includes more than 100 loans, both performing and nonperforming, and is primarily secured by retail, office, and industrial properties, and land. Sabal will provide loan servicing and asset management for the portfolio.

JPMorgan Chase used its third-quarter earnings call with investors Thursday to rein in expectations about when a mortgage servicing settlement might be reached with state officials. CEO Jamie Dimon described the settlement talks as ""getting bogged down"" because of the many varying demands of each of the state attorneys general. Dimon said he thinks it'd be good for everyone involved to come to an agreement and move on, but he was quick to add, only if the settlement is ""reasonable.""

Market watchers have their eyes peeled for word from Washington that officials will relax the rules of a government refinancing program to allow underwater homeowners with GSE-backed loans to take out new mortgages with lower interest rates. President Obama promised just over a month ago that a new and improved Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) would soon be unveiled, but lawmakers are growing impatient. A bipartisan group of senators has sent letters to the heads of four federal agencies calling for ""immediate"" action.

The number of loans held in commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS) resolved by special servicers in 2010 was more than four times the amount in 2009, according to Fitch's CMBS loss study released Wednesday. The company says special servicers have been increasingly successful selling properties and working with borrowers for discounted loan payoffs. However, despite this positive movement, Fitch remains uncertain what next year will bring amid current economic uncertainty.

Mortgage servicing took center stage at a mortgage banking conference in Chicago on Monday, with industry experts making a case for reform. Panelists at a session on the future of mortgage servicing assured attendees that in five years, the servicing business ""will look nothing"" like it does today. Executives from such organizations as Freddie Mac, Amherst Securities, and the University of North Carolina advocated for national servicing standards, greater transparency, and new compensation structures.

Rekon Technologies has installed the latest edition of its namesake software for one of the top three mortgage lenders in the nation. The company provides software solutions to loan servicers and lenders that prepare, record, manage, and track loan documents, such as assignments, lien releases, and UCC terminations. The latest version of the Rekon software is designed to reduce assignment backlogs and ensure clean titles for foreclosure proceedings.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) had knowledge of such foreclosure procedural abuses as robo-signing and falsified documentation years before these infractions made front-page headlines and triggered industry-wide investigations, according to the agency's own inspector general. Beyond a number of very specific red flags - including consumer complaints, media reports of foreclosure mills, and even public court filings - the inspector general says the sheer nature of market conditions should have been enough to lead FHFA to take action.

After two very sharp moves over the previous two months - a huge jump in July and a big dip in August - the delinquency rate of loans held in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) stabilized in September, according to Trepp LLC. The company says for at least one month, the reading reverted to its pattern from earlier in the year when modest bumps in the rate were the norm. Trepp reports the CMBS delinquency rate inched up just 4 basis points between August and September to 9.56 percent.

Bank of the Cascades has agreed to sell off a chunk of nonperforming, substandard, and related performing loans with a book carrying value of approximately $108 million. Included in the sale is an additional $2 million of the bank's other real estate owned (OREO) assets. Bank of the Cascades says the transaction will result in a reduction of nonperforming assets by approximately 38 percent.