Tag Archives: MSRs

Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS), a provider of technology, services, data, and analytics to the mortgage industry, announced that AmeriFirst Home Mortgage has completed its implementation of LPS' MSP mortgage and consumer loan servicing platform. AmeriFirst says it decided on LPS' system because it offered ""the complete package.""

Investment bank FBR Capital Markets released its preview of third-quarter earnings for major U.S. banks Monday, with a cloudy outlook for mortgage banking. In general, bank stocks have underperformed the broader market by about 2 percent over the third quarter; and zeroing in on the mortgage market, FBR is not optimistic about Q3 results.

Seneca Mortgage Investments LP, is set to acquire AMS Servicing LLC, according to an announcement released Thursday. Seneca Mortgage Investments, headquartered in New York City, is a newly formed joint venture of Arbor Commercial Mortgage, LLC; affiliates of the global credit platform GSO Capital Partners LP, which is owned by the Blackstone Group; and alternative asset manager EJF Capital, LLC.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General (FHFA OIG) overall approves of Fannie Mae's $11.6 billion settlement earlier this year, though it does raise some questions regarding FHFA's treatment of compensatory fees and servicing transfers. FHFA OIG believes FHFA needs to establish set guidance for compensatory fees. Another concern the OIG labeled in a report is the transfer of servicing rights to specialty servicers.

Citigroup and Fannie Mae announced Monday an agreement to resolve future repurchase claims for breaches of representations of warranties on millions of loans originated between 2000 and 2012. According to release from Citi, the agreement covers 3.7 million residential first mortgage loans sold to Fannie Mae. As part of the agreement, Citi will pay Fannie Mae $968 million, ""substantially all of which was covered"" by the bank's existing mortgage repurchase reserves as of the end of the first quarter.

While the current market environment is a haven for specialty servicers, Fitch Ratings suggests in time, these shops will have to rely more heavily on originations to survive. ""The decision by many banks to reduce or exit subprime and distressed mortgage servicing in part reflects regulatory risks faced by these institutions in the migration to Basel III,"" Fitch said.

Ocwen Loan Servicing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ocwen Financial Corporation, has entered into an agreement to purchase $78 billion in mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) from OneWest Bank. According to a filing made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the aggregate purchase price for the MSRs will be approximately $2.53 billion, with $446 million paid in respect of the MSRs and approximately $2.1 billion to be paid in respect of the servicing advances.

Since the housing crisis, many large banks have sold off servicing portfolios to smaller, emerging companies. According to a recent study, these portfolios often begin to perform better after the transfers. Opera Solutions found faster liquidations and better long-term performance for modified loans after portfolios were sold. According to the study, two servicers stand out for acquiring the ""lion's share"" of servicing rights--Ocwen and Nationstar. At Ocwen, which acquired the most loans, the study detected higher levels of foreclosures and REO rates immediately following acquisitions. However, after a period of months, Ocwen's portfolios stabilized and improved.

Hope LoanPort (HLP) explained how its platform can help facilitate mortgage servicing transfers following an announcement from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) regarding plans to monitor transfer activity more closely. The HLP structure helps parties involved in the process by allowing existing cases to be transferred between registered mortgage servicers without having to deal with lost documents or the need to resubmit applications for mortgage relief.

In light of the heightened number of mortgage servicing transfers, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a bulletin to servicers and subservicers to remind them of protections for consumers when loan transfers occur. ""If the transfer process is not handled properly, consumers may find that their servicer lost important loss mitigation documents or that the servicer did not credit their payments on time,"" the CFPB explained. The CFPB also announced it is making servicing transfer-related problems a focus and will be scrutinizing servicers in a few specific areas.