Servicing

PNC and Freddie Mac announced an agreement to resolve substantially all indemnification and repurchase obligations related to loans sold to Freddie Mac between 2000 and 2008.

The national unemployment rate sank from 7.3 percent to 7.0 percent in November, with 203,000 new jobs added to employer payrolls, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Friday.

Joseph A. Smith, the monitor overseeing servicers' compliance with last year's National Mortgage Settlement, filed reports on how the institutions involved with the settlement are dealing with the agreement. "My testing confirmed six fails in the first quarter of 2013 and one in the second quarter of 2013," Smith said in a statement issued Wednesday, adding that the "banks are all taking action to address the failures through detailed corrective action plans."

In Georgia, Equity Loans LLC made two announcements: the launch of its correspondent lending channel and the hiring of two new executives to support the division.

Carrington Mortgage Services' lending division appointed Carl Grimes as branch manager of its office in Tampa, Florida.

LRES, a national provider of commercial and residential valuations and asset management, announced it is now serving the retail lending division of California-based PennyMac Financial Services.

Mortgage loan production suffered among independent mortgage bankers throughout the third quarter--but servicing revenues are helping to ease the pain for those with portfolios, Richey May revealed in its latest quarterly report. Overall, net income declined 60 basis points from the second quarter, though a 0.07 percent increase in the average value of servicing portfolios helped offset losses at those with servicing interests, Richey May reported.

Title365 Company, a provider of title insurance and escrow services based in California, announced the hiring of Jeremy Harmon as SVP of national sales.

A new face has joined the Austin-based 360 Mortgage Group. Joseph Kowalewski has been brought on as regional manager of the East Region of the United States.

Appraisal Logistics, a Maryland-based provider of compliant appraisal management solutions for the mortgage industry, announced it has received the ISO 9001:2008 Certification for Quality Management Systems Standards by LQRA, passing a formal evaluation created to examine quality management standards in the financial services industry.