Servicing

Mortgage servicing assets are poised for gains in 2019. But as higher average mortgage rates spur lenders to sell servicing rights and diversify their loan offerings, servicers' work will also get more complicated and costly.

An agency report said servicing portfolios have shrunk by nearly half in 10 years as much of the mortgage market has shifted to nonbanks.

New Penn Financial will change its name to NewRez at the start of 2019, reflecting its acquisition earlier this year by New Residential Investment Corp.

The government-sponsored enterprises sold fewer nonperforming loans in the first half, but the drop-off in the number of sales year-to-year is less severe than it was in 2017 as a whole.

While the foreclosure crisis is over and federal regulators are being less assertive on enforcement actions, mortgage servicers must remain vigilant about compliance, as state agencies are stepping up their own oversight, according to Standard & Poor's.

After falling to its lowest level in over 12 years, servicers expected September's surge in delinquencies following the damage of Hurricane Florence, according to Black Knight.

Rating agencies are sparring over a new feature in a private-label RMBS that upends the relationship between senior and sub bondholders.

The REIT is purchasing another $500 million of credit risk transfer notes through Fannie's L Street Securities program; this is its first deal rated by Fitch.

Destruction from Michael's storm surge and flooding has potential to affect 57,000 homes, with a worst-case total of $13.4 billion in reconstruction cost value, according to CoreLogic's latest estimates.

Florence's flooding and wind destruction affected about 700,000 residential and commercial properties across North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, according to CoreLogic's latest estimates.

The CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are stepping down because the job they were hired to do — return the GSEs to profitability — is done. But attracting top-flight candidates to lead the mortgage giants into a new phase may not be easy.

A new financial technology company called Scratch is planning to use a new web-based platform along with an alternative pricing model to compete with companies that service mortgages and other consumer loans.

Commercial mortgage-backed securities delinquency rates are likely to continue to decrease for the rest of the year, as new issuances outpace maturing loans and precrisis loans continued to get resolved by special servicers, Fitch Ratings said.

While the severity of Florence was reduced prior to Friday morning's landfall, mortgage servicers are taking proactive steps in addressing the emergency situation.

Fund manager Varde Partners wants to grow its partnerships with lenders and servicers interested in selling off their excess mortgage servicing rights.

The 30-day delinquency rate dropped to a low not seen in over a decade in July, but foreclosure starts also increased to a three-month high.

Intensifying margin pressure could spur another wave of cost-cutting at nonbank mortgage lenders, unless other strategies, like consolidation or a mortgage servicing book that could increase in value, offset it.

MountainView Financial Solutions is brokering a more than $3 billion package of Fannie Mae and government mortgage servicing rights originated primarily through third-party origination channels.

The new policy, meant to assist borrowers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, will let servicers evaluate borrowers using pre-disaster payment information.

AmeriHome GMSR Issuer Trust, consists of $155 million of fixed-rate, five-year notes and $500 million of two-year variable funding notes; it is modeled on deals by PennyMac.