Tag Archives: Loan Modification

Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler and Wells Fargo have reached an agreement to settle allegations that two companies Wells acquired in 2008 - Wachovia and Golden West - used deceptive practices to market adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs). In addition to loan modifications for certain consumers, Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $940,056 to the attorney general's office for restitution to affected borrowers who lost their homes in foreclosure.

After a net loss of $2.2 billion in 2010, Bank of America reported net income of $1.4 billion, $0.01 per diluted share, for the year in 2011, according to the company's earnings report released Thursday. On a fully taxable-equivalent basis, net interest expense declined 15 percent for the year arriving at $94.4 billion. BofA's mortgage servicing portfolio is on the decline. The $1.8 trillion portfolio reported at the end of the year is down from $1.9 trillion in the previous quarter and $2.1 trillion a year ago.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services continues to expand its regulatory and risk management consulting services. The company recently brought on Timothy R. Burniston to serve as VP and senior director of professional services for its risk and compliance business. Burniston, previously a senior associate director with the Federal Reserve Board's division of consumer and community affairs, joins the company's growing roster of more than 400 in-house regulatory and risk management experts.

Citigroup's fourth-quarter results fell far short of analysts' expectations, despite a 40 percent drop in credit losses from the previous year. The company reported net income of $1.2 billion, or 38 cents per share, for the fourth quarter of 2011. Analysts were looking for 50 cents per share. Company officials told investors that legacy mortgage issues are the single largest source of risk facing the U.S. banking industry. Citi saw loan buybacks go up 80 percent in 2011 as it stockpiled reserves for mortgage litigation costs.

Wells Fargo & Company ended the year with record earnings in the fourth quarter, reporting a net income of $4.1 billion, up from $3.4 billion in the third quarter. The San Francisco-based bank reported year-end profits of $15.9 billion, demonstrating a 28 percent increase from yearly earnings in 2010. Wells Fargo holds a residential mortgage servicing portfolio totaling $1.8 trillion in value. As of year-end, the balance of loans 90-plus days delinquent stood at $22.4 billion.

The ratings agency Standard & Poor's says investors can cut their losses by basing servicer selection on key performance metrics of default management. The company has come up with a new method to assess residential mortgage servicer performance that looks at how the speed of the servicers' foreclosure processes and the success of their loan modification programs affect investors' losses on nonperforming loans, and S&P says it's found ""significant differences"" among 10 of the largest servicers.

The number of mortgage modifications completed during the month of November rose 5 percent from October, bringing the year-to-date total to about 969,000, according to data released Tuesday by HOPE NOW, a voluntary private sector alliance of mortgage industry participants. While completed modifications rose over the month, 60-plus day delinquencies also increased. After reporting 2.65 million 60-plus day delinquencies in October, HOPE NOW reported 2.77 million in November.

Treasury released a new report Monday highlighting results from the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Nearly 910,000 homeowners have received a permanent HAMP modification, saving $9.9 billion in monthly mortgage payments. Officials say they will continue to press servicers to assist underwater borrowers and address second-lien issues. A total of 38,243 principal-reducing permanent HAMP mods have been granted, and 54,828 second-lien mods have been started under the federal program.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) now has the authority to oversee nonbank businesses, including mortgage servicers that are not part of a depository institution and companies providing loan modification and foreclosure relief services. This expanded authority came with the appointment of an agency director on Wednesday, and the bureau wasted no time. That very same day, the CFPB announced the official launch of its nonbank supervisory program.

Mortgage modification scams made the list of ""Top Ten Scams of 2011,"" assembled by the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Because the federal government announced or expanded several mortgage relief programs this year, the BBB says all kinds of sound-alike websites have popped up to try to fool consumers into parting with their money. Scammers are representing themselves as government agencies or the BBB itself in order to gain consumers' trust.