Tag Archives: Loan Modification

Commerce Velocity, a member of the Fidelity National Financial family of companies, recently released its Loss Mitigation Borrower Portal. The portal supports the federal requirement instituted by regulators under the consent orders issued to servicers in April for communicating with borrowers via a single point-of-contact (SPOC). It also provides borrowers with a place to review the status of a loan, upload financial documents.

Indiana has enacted a new foreclosure law surrounding the state's pre-judgment mediation program, outlining changes related to borrower notification and loss mitigation documentation. Senate Bill 582 passed both chambers of the state Legislature by a near unanimous vote, with only one senator casting a nay, and was quickly signed into law by Gov. Mitch Daniels. The law becomes effective for all new residential foreclosure filings as of July 1.

According to Sperlonga Data and Analytics, unpaid homeowners association (HOA) fees are a clear sign of potential mortgage default. Sperlonga has launched a new service, Loss Mitigation Association Surveillance (LMAS), which is designed to help mortgage servicers reduce risk after a loan modification by alerting lenders when a borrower is falling behind on HOA fees, which are historically difficult to track. With the new service, lenders can identify potential defaults or troubled modifications months before the borrower misses a mortgage payment.

CitiMortgage and the North Texas Housing Coalition, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving and increasing affordable, working class housing in North Texas, are hosting a free homeowner assistance event in Dallas for distressed homeowners Tuesday. Part of the Citi Road to Recovery Homeowner Assistance series, the event is open to all homeowners struggling to make mortgage payments.

Servicers using the XetusOne Loan Management System already exceed the minimum requirements for the Treasury Department's new guideline mandating a single relationship manager for Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) borrowers. Available via California-based Xetus, the system provides servicers with compliance through its Web-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform.

The U.S. Treasury has released its regular monthly report card on the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). New this time is an assessment of how the 10 largest HAMP servicers are performing. Four servicers have been designated as needing ""substantial"" improvement: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Ocwen Loan Servicing, and Wells Fargo. Treasury says it will withhold financial incentives from three of these companies until they make identified improvements.

NeighborWorks America announced this week that $67.7 million has been awarded to 37 state housing finance agencies, 17 HUD-approved housing counseling intermediaries, and 84 community-based organizations to provide counseling to homeowners facing foreclosure. Demand for this latest round of grant money exceeded the amount of funding available, with more than $212.7 million requested from eligible applicants. NeighborWorks estimates the money will support assistance for nearly 184,000 families facing foreclosure.

Mortgage Cadence, LLC, a provider of enterprise lending solutions (ELS), default servicing technology, and document services for the financial services industry, will spin off its compliance, content, and document preparation division, Mortgage Cadence Finale, into a separate entity. The new standalone service provider will go by the name Finale Document Services and allows lenders and servicers to create modification and short sale packages, as well as other financial documents.

IndiSoft announced Tuesday that its workflow technology now assists housing counseling agencies with internal operations and communications. Housing counselors provide consumers with advice on housing options as well as information regarding defaults, foreclosures, and credit issues. IndiSoft explained that its RxOffice Premium Counselor Edition provides case and document management features customized for counselors and allows them to more effectively communicate with both financially troubled consumers and servicers.

Foreclosure prevention actions on loans held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac declined during the first three months of this year, driven primarily by loan modifications. Permanent loan mods dropped for the third consecutive quarter to 86,201. Short sales were essentially flat at 25,705. According to the GSEs' regulator, even with the drop-off in loss mitigation actions the two companies' delinquency rates ""remain below industry levels."" In the first quarter, foreclosure starts declined while completed foreclosures increased.