The number of loan modifications completed in the third quarter of 2014 was lower than activity in other recent quarters, according to servicers and data from the Home Affordable Modification Program. While improved borrower performance contributed to the slowdown, some servicers suggest that changes in federal modification programs were also a factor. A total of 29,384 permanent HAMP mods were started in the third quarter of 2014, down 14.6 percent from ... [Includes one data chart]

Ocwen Financial is working on a settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services regarding various servicing-related concerns raised by the state regulator. The $100 million in legal reserves that Ocwen booked in the third quarter of 2014 for a potential settlement is the minimum the company expects to spend, according to William Erbey, Ocwen’s chairman. “I would caution that this does not mean that we have settled with the [NYDFS] ... [Includes two briefs]

The New York Department of Financial Services has found serious issues at Ocwen Financial, including the backdating of “potentially hundreds of thousands” of letters to borrowers, the NYDFS said in a letter to the nonbank servicer released this week. The allegations could be the most damaging yet for Ocwen, which has faced concerns from the NYDFS since February when Ocwen placed a planned $39.2 billion mortgage acquisition on indefinite hold in an effort to resolve issues raised by the agency ...

FHA to Extend Short Refi Program. The FHA has announced its intent to extend its Short Refinance Program for borrowers in negative equity positions. A mortgagee letter will be issued soon to announce the extension. Feedback Period extended for Draft Servicing Section of Proposed Single Family Handbook. The FHA is extending the comment period for the draft servicing section of the Single Family Housing Policy Handbook through Nov. 14, 2014 to allow stakeholders additional time to study and comment on the proposed section. The original deadline date was Oct. 17. CFPB Updates Reverse Mortgage Guide. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently updated its reverse mortgage guide on its website to account for recent changes made by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program. The updated guide highlights new limits to ...

MountainView, a firm known mostly for the market it makes in mortgage servicing rights, is branching out into non-QM lending, but company officials cautioned that its effort will start small. Moreover, a spokesman for the firm clarified that loans acquired through its new “Peak Program” will meet the ability-to-repay rule requirements, including the non-QM loans. “We expect...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released an updated bulletin regarding servicing transfers due to continued concerns about how troubled borrowers fare when servicing moves from one firm to another. “In particular, CFPB examiners will carefully scrutinize transfers of loans with pending loss mitigation applications or approved trial and permanent modification plans,” the regulator said. “Examples of good practices by servicers include flagging those loans and ...

Roughly $1 billion in damages will flow through to the FHA and Ginnie Mae from Bank of America’s record $16.65 billion global mortgage-backed securities settlement with the Department of Justice. Although most of the DOJ’s case centered around faulty private-label MBS that BofA and its forbears (namely Countrywide and Merrill Lynch) underwrote during the housing boom, a small piece of the settlement is tied to servicing chores that the bank did for Ginnie Mae. And apparently, BofA didn’t do a very good job of servicing the underlying product. The bank took over as the subservicer on roughly $26.2 billion in mortgage servicing rights that once belonged to Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, a large nonbank based in Ocala, FL. When TBW went bust in the second half of 2009, BofA was given the subservicing contract. “BofA serviced the loans for us,” said Ginnie Mae president Ted Tozer. “And they did a ...

It was business as usual in the subprime servicing market during the second quarter of 2014, save for the lack of large transfers of servicing from banks to nonbank special servicers. Subprime mortgage performance continued to improve and the amount of subprime mortgages outstanding continued to decline. Some $374.0 billion in subprime mortgages were outstanding as of the end of the second quarter of 2014 ... [Includes one data chart]

Moody’s Investors Service this week announced a proposed update to its rating criteria for jumbo mortgage-backed securities. Under the proposed criteria, collateral modeling will be based on a new version of Moody’s Individual Loan Analysis tool as opposed to the portfolio analysis tool Moody’s has used since 2008. Navneet Agarwal, a managing director at Moody’s, said the proposed changes set “a new standard for transparency” ... [Includes six briefs]

Officials at Ocwen Financial continue to indicate that the servicer is primed to grow, but the nonbank has been stymied since February due to a voluntary agreement with the New York Department of Financial Services. Henry Coffey, an analyst at Sterne Agee, said there appears to be ample interest from nonbank servicers to acquire servicing along with plenty of interest from banks to shift servicing to banks. However, he said there has been a drought in such transfers ...