Finance

Legal actions tied to mortgage lending jumped by more than 40% in the third quarter based on the Mortgage Litigation Index report published this week.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has assembled a task force of its key members to examine and issue recommendations for the future of residential mortgage servicing. Michael Berman, chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and John Courson, MBA's president and CEO announced the trade group's move.

GAGFAH S.A., sponsor of several German multifamily loans securitized in European CMBS, intends to buy back as much as €125 million ($167.5 million) in shares.

Ginnie Mae will join Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in requiring mortgages it purchases to be transmitted in the Uniform Loan Delivery Dataset (ULDD) standard — the set of data points and e-document formats the government-sponsored enterprises will mandate for all mortgages it purchases beginning Sept. 1, 2011.

Moody’s Investors Service sees “encouraging” signs for the emergence of a New Zealand covered bond market following a proposal from regulators for a comprehensive legal framework and the first-time issuance this year of this product.

The number of mortgages with negative equity fell nearly 2% in the third quarter from the previous quarter mostly due to foreclosures, according to a CoreLogic report issued Monday morning.The third quarter report shows there are 10.8 million single-family loans or 22.5% of all mortgages under water, compared to 11 million in the second quarter.

Anyone expecting a quick and narrow resolution of mortgage servicers' troubles from foreclosure process failures probably hasn't talked to Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who heads the 50-state coalition investigating the industry.

Though regulators have so far been vague about what kinds of national servicing standards they hope Congress will enact next year, momentum appears to be growing behind the concept.

Moody's Investors Service has assigned a provisional rating to two classes of Notes issued under the €520 million ($692 million) small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME)CDO dubbed FTPYME TDA CAM 9, FTA.

Citibank has filed an S-3 with the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue under its Citibank Credit Card Issuance Trust.

The second-largest CMBS loan called Beacon Capital Partners Seattle & D.C. portfolio, was modified, according to a Standard & Poor's report.

State Street will be selling investments worth roughly $11 billion while taking a $350 million loss on the securities.

BDO Valuation Advisors has hired Greg Adams as director and national real estate practice leader, the firm announced.

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is selling as much as $1.2 billion of its corporate bailout bonds this week backed by student loan assets owned by the failed corporate credit unions.

Morgan Stanley is the latest target of MBIA's quest to win back more than $2 billion of claims it paid on MBS that went bust during the financial crisis.

DoubleLine Capital, the brainchild of portfolio manager Jeffrey Gundlach, revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing Monday that “employees and former employees” have been questioned by federal investigators.

A report from Fitch Ratings said the manufactured housing sector, which historically has had "problematic performance," has been relatively stable in 2010.

There have been some relative improvements seen in cCMBS delinquencies recently but also some continuing concerns, suggesting that market—while improving in some respects — still could have some hurdles to clear before it bottoms out.

One of the innocent casualties of the mortgage bust/housing bubble was the secondary market for servicing rights.

An updated CoreLogic 2010 Mortgage Fraud Trends Report finds that while overall mortgage fraud has increased by 20% compared to its lowest level in 2009, refinance fraud increased by 30%.