Servicing

The Residential Standards Governance Committee of the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) has elected Randy Gilster as its chairman.

Joseph A. Smith, the monitor overseeing fulfillment efforts put forward by each servicer involved in the National Mortgage Settlement, has issued a report on their progress satisfying consumer relief obligations outlined in the agreement. Smith's report covers servicer activities through December 31, 2012, which have been vetted and verified by the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight. Each servicer's internal review group provided Smith with information on the servicers' crediting progress in February of this year.

Collateral Analytics, appointed James R. Follain, Ph.D. as its SVP of research and development. Dr. Follain is an economist with over 35 years' experience in the analysis of housing and mortgage markets, much of which involved the measurement and management of the risks associated with lending and investing as well as public policies.

The Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Mike Fratantoni has been appointed chief economist following the departure of Jay Brinkmann.

DebtX, based in Boston, Massachusetts, has partnered with SEBA Professional Services will sell a $5 billion portfolio of non-performing residential loans for HUD.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has appointed Tricia Migliazzo as VP of membership for the association's Residential Policy & Member Services Group.

Bank of America released Wednesday its third-quarter earnings report, showing healthy growth despite an expected weakening in its mortgage banking operations. According to the earnings release, BofA took in $2.5 billion in Q3, a significant increase from the $340 million reported in the year-ago quarter. However, the bank's Consumer Real Estate Services division reported a net loss of $1.0 billion, faring even worse than last year's loss of $857 million.

Freddie Mac has made available a Spanish version of CreditSmart, the company's free online tutorial designed to educate families on building savings and personal credit, making wise financial choices, and becoming successful homeowners.

SunTrust announced Thursday that it has taken further steps to clear up its mortgage problems with the government and with the GSEs. On top of an agreement reached with Freddie Mac at the end of September, SunTrust has settled with HUD, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Reserve for allegedly unsound practices with respect to its servicing and origination operations. The Atlanta-based lender estimates its third-quarter earnings will take a $179 million hit as a result.

Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase both released their earnings summaries for the third quarter on Friday, revealing the full toll that legal expenses have taken on the latter's profits.