Tag Archives: Service Providers

The settlement struck between the nation's five largest mortgage servicers and the U.S. Department of Justice and 49 state attorneys general calls for reforming mortgage servicing practices with the implementation of more than 300 standards. As described by the attorneys general's own negotiating committee, the banks must "accomplish a massive undertaking" to put all the servicing standards into practice as ordered under the agreement. They were given 180 days.

Three men were arrested Monday for bank fraud connected to the fall of New York's Park Avenue Bank in 2010, the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Trouble Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) announced. Wilbur Anthony Huff, Matthew L. Morris, and Allen Reichman were presented in federal court for their alleged roles in the collapse of the Manhattan bank. Huff, Morris, and former bank CEO Charles Antonucci--arrested in 2010--are accused of defrauding regulators to secure $11 million in TARP funds.

One of the nation's oldest privately-owned financial services companies announced its acquisition of Florida-based residential mortgage lender FBC Mortgage, LLC. Sterne Agee Group, Inc., founded in Alabama in 1901, signed a definitive agreement to acquire FBC, a retail and wholesale loan originator.

Responding to Moody's Investors Service Inc.'s decision to extend the review period for potential downgrades for portions of the company's debt, Genworth Financial, Inc., has issued an official statement on the pending evaluations. Noting that Genworth is proceeding with urgency in its dealings with Moody's, the company expressed confidence in the outcome of the review process.

Recent gains in housing are closely linked to rising consumer confidence, according to numbers juxtaposed and analyzed by Clear Capital in its latest report on home price movements. The feeble underpinnings of price increases, however, could soon topple, according to the real estate valuation company. Threatening to temper consumer sentiment--and in turn, home prices--is the fear Congress will not act in time to avert the looming "fiscal cliff" of $500 billion in tax increases and spending cuts that lie in wait at year-end, Clear Capital warns.

Wall Street took notice as the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) Working Group fired its first shot against a major financial institution.

Interthinx and Middleberg Riddle & Gianna are teaming up to offer attorney-backed compliance services to mortgage lenders.

Mortgage-related business closings and failures are on track to post fewer incidences in 2012 than any year since the mortgage crisis began. In the third quarter, 17 mortgage-related businesses failed, down from 25 in the previous quarter and 31 in the same quarter last year, according to a findings released by Mortgage Daily. Bank closings followed this trend, falling from 15 failings in the second quarter to 12 in the third. Both numbers are down from the third quarter of last year, when 26 banks failed.

According to Fannie Mae's monthly summary, its book of business grew at a compound annualized rate of 1.9 percent in August, bringing its year-to-date growth to 0.4 percent.

MGIC Investment Corporation is on its way to resolving stipulations from Freddie Mac in order to continue issuing insurance.