Tag Archives: Loan Repurchases

Ginnie Mae has announced a new rule regarding buyouts of delinquent loans. Servicers may now buy out loans at the end of a successful trial payment plan, instead of waiting until a borrower has missed three payments. This new rule is in line with recently released Federal Housing Administration (FHA) guidelines requiring most loans to undergo a three- to four-month trial payment plan before a loan modification is made permanent. The new FHA guidelines go into effect October 1.

Bank of America has named Ron Sturzenegger to replace Terry Laughlin as head of the bank's Legacy Asset Servicing division, the unit that manages problem home loans and investors' mortgage repurchase claims. Laughlin has now officially assumed his new role as chief risk officer, as announced by the company last month. Sturzenegger joined Bank of America in 1998. He most recently has served as a catalyst team member for Project New BAC, focused on the company's home loans business.

Freddie Mac says it is seeing a ""material increase"" in mortgage insurer rescissions, cancellations, and denials of coverage. The GSE has issued a notice alerting lenders that they may be forced to buy back loans if Freddie Mac determines they do not have the insurance coverage required at delivery, or if the mortgage insurance coverage is no longer in force. Freddie requires a primary mortgage insurance policy as protection against default for loans with a loan-to-value ratio of more than 80 percent.

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden has announced his opposition to the proposed $8.5 million Bank of America settlement. He sent a petition to the New York Supreme Court expressing his disapproval and requesting permission to intervene in the court's review of the settlement. ""I am intervening to enforce our laws and to protect Delaware investors who may have been harmed by these toxic securities,"" Biden said. ""Intervening in this settlement puts us in position to ensure that the banks are playing by the rules.""

Ally Financial Inc. reported a profit for the second quarter of 2011, but its results were down from previous earnings. Net income for Q2 was $113 million, a decline from $146 million in the previous quarter and from $565 million one year ago. The company says reducing risk in its legacy mortgage portfolio has been among the top priorities. Ally's GMAC Mortgage has completed more than 700,000 loan workouts for defaulted homeowners since 2008. The mortgage unit says it modifies two loans for every one foreclosure.

American International Group Inc. (AIG) filed a lawsuit Monday against Bank of America claiming the bank's subsidiaries, Countrywide and Merrill Lynch, withheld information from its investors regarding loan quality. AIG hopes to secure more than $10 billion from BofA to recover losses resulting from the alleged non-disclosures. The insurance company accuses BofA of giving investors a false account of the performance of its residential mortgage-backed securities. BofA maintains that AIG is responsible for its own losses and rejects AIG's accusations of fraud.

The Association of Mortgage Investors has sent letters to a handful of large banks expressing concerns on behalf of its members who hold residential mortgage-backed securities certificates. The mortgage investors called for enforcement of repurchases based on what they described as ""significant breaches"" of representations and warranties that have been discovered in the underwriting of loans, and voiced concerns that servicers are putting more effort into modifying their own loans than those of investors.

Wells Fargo says its second quarter expenses included $428 million of operating losses, substantially all driven by litigation accruals for mortgage foreclosure-related matters. Loan losses, though, were down substantially, supporting a 29 percent increase in net income to $3.9 billion for the three-month period. The company says credit quality continued to improve, marking its sixth consecutive quarter of declining loan losses and third consecutive quarter with fewer nonperforming assets.

Bank of America says it is looking to downsize its mortgage servicing portfolio. Company executives told investors Tuesday that they will become more discriminating when adding mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) to their books and will be focused on selling off MSRs more aggressively. The company made roughly $70 million from MSR sales during the second quarter of this year, but on the whole posted its largest-ever three month loss - $8.8 billion - as a result of heavy losses within the consumer real estate services division.

Bank of America will pay investors $8.5 billion to compensate them for Countrywide's dealings years before the subprime lender was acquired by BofA. The settlement resolves nearly all of BofA's first-lien repurchase exposure from Countrywide-issued bonds. It involves 530 trusts and $424 billion in securities. The company has also agreed to implement certain servicing changes, which will cost some $400 million. BofA says the cleanup will leave it with a loss for the second quarter, but the market has responded positively to the news.