Tag Archives: Loan Modification

The research firm and ratings agency DBRS says it has learned from various servicers that although Congress never authorized bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages on primary residences, these ""cram-downs,"" as they have been termed, are currently being performed in some courts. The agency's analysts say the amount of the cram-down varies by state, property value, and borrower situation but usually includes a reduction in the principal amount of the loan to fair market value.

California legislators have put two bills aimed at addressing the state's foreclosure problem to committee votes. Both failed to pass despite the fact that supporters packed the hearing rooms at the state Capitol, but neither is completely dead. They have both been scheduled for new hearings in the coming week. The Senate bill would have made it unlawful for a lender to move forward with foreclosure while evaluating the borrower for a modification. A second bill in the Assembly would have levied a $20,000 fee on lenders and servicers for every foreclosure initiated.

Fannie Mae has released new details on its book of business, which shows the share of mortgages it owns or guarantees that's past due by three months or longer has been on a steady decline for a year now. The nation's largest mortgage company reported that its seriously delinquent rate on single-family mortgage loans slipped to 4.44 percent in February of this year. That's down just 1 basis point from 4.45 percent in January, but it marks the 12th straight month that the rate has decreased.

A new mediation program to help ease those affected by residential mortgage foreclosures will soon be available in Peoria County, Illinois. The program's anticipated start date is June 1. The program, approved by the Illinois Supreme Court, is modeled after one that began last June in Will County. Both programs operate with no expense to taxpayers and are sustained by an increase in filing fees paid by lenders seeking to foreclose.

Struggling Minnesota homeowners with loans owned by Fannie Mae can now expect faster response times to their mortgage situations. The Minnesota Home Ownership Center recently partnered with the GSE to accelerate the mortgage resolution process. The Center's counselors will work directly with Fannie Mae staff on behalf of borrowers to find solutions. Assistance is free of charge.

Bank of America has assembled what you might call a ""Dream Team"" of default servicing executives to head up critical areas within its Legacy Asset Servicing unit. Collectively, this new team has more than 70 years experience working with distressed borrowers. The nation's largest mortgage servicer has brought in a former default and loan servicing exec of JPMorgan, someone who previously ran all of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage's default operations, and a top executive from Fannie Mae's national servicing operation.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are issuing new guidelines to servicers in order to align their procedures for handling past-due mortgages. The objective is to ensure consistent servicing requirements for loans handled on behalf of the GSEs across four key areas: borrower contact, delinquency management practices, loan modifications, and foreclosure timelines. The new approach provides monetary incentives for servicers that perform well and imposes fines on those that do not.

Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, a specialty and component mortgage servicer, added 100 employees in the past 60 days to help servicers stay compliant with the interagency review issued this month by the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Office of Thrift Supervision. Two key enforcement actions were included in the consent orders for each servicer examined -- the hiring of an an independent consultant to review residential foreclosure actions from 2009 and 2010, and an expert assessment of risks in servicing operations.

CoreLogic recently released Vector Securities, a platform to enable transparent and dynamic loan-level analysis of non-agency residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS). The company says the transparency at both the deal- and loan-level provided by the new technology is key to enabling a new era of confident securitizations and reestablishing the RMBS market as private liquidity returns.

The percentage of home loans going unpaid is steadily declining for the nation's second largest mortgage company. Freddie Mac reported Tuesday that its single-family seriously delinquent rate decreased to 3.63 percent in March. That's down 15 basis points from 3.78 percent in February, and the fourth consecutive month that the rate has headed south. With only a few intermittent blips upward over the last year, Freddie has recorded a drop in its seriously delinquent rate in nine of the past 12 months.