Nationstar Mortgage Holdings says the deal it announced earlier this month to purchase $63 billion of mortgage servicing rights from Aurora Bank FSB, a subsidiary of Lehman Brothers Bancorp Inc., is part of the servicer’s long-term strategy to drive future growth. Texas-based Nationstar, the home finance unit of Fortress Investment Group, said the purchase represents all of Aurora’s servicing with 75 percent of the loans in non-agency mortgages, comprising approximately $45 billion of Aurora-serviced non-agency loans. Aurora serviced $34 billion of Alt A and negative amortization loans and about $10...

Ally Financial may be getting closer to ridding itself of its non-agency mortgage unit, ResCap, the residual of a business formerly known as Residential Capital that helped invent the jumbo securitization and Alt A markets. According to reports, Ally is weighing putting ResCap into bankruptcy as a prelude to selling the business to Fortress Investment Group or another suitor. Ally’s primary mortgage business, GMAC Mortgage, is a top seller-servicer in the agency market. ResCap and GMAC Mortgage are separate entities that are both subsidiaries of the holding company that also owns Ally...

Mobile devices have increasingly become tools that consumers use for banking, payments, budgeting and shopping, according to a new Federal Reserve report that offers useful business intelligence for mortgage lenders and technology vendors. The ubiquity of mobile phones is changing the way consumers access financial services, the Fed found. Twenty-one percent of mobile phone owners have used mobile banking in the past 12 months, and 11 percent of those not currently using mobile banking think that they will probably use it within the next 12 months. The most common use of mobile banking is to check account...

Buried in the fine print of the $25 billion nationwide servicing settlement is a small incentive for the five banks if they agree to waive their right to seek deficiency judgments against distressed borrowers. The five servicers agreed to make some $17 billion in loan modifications and refinances, but they meet those obligations by racking up “credits” for a long list of actions. For every dollar of principal reduction made on a portfolio mortgage with a loan-to-value ratio under 175 percent, for example, they get a dollar of credit toward their obligation. The agreement gives them credit for...

Many non-agency MBS investors are upset with the $25 billion servicing settlement involving 49 state attorneys general, eight federal agencies and the nation’s five largest servicers, the full terms of which were filed in U.S. District Court this week. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Ally Financial will receive some credit for modifying loans they service but do not own, although several of these firms have indicated that they plan to focus their efforts on portfolio loans. The Association of Mortgage Investors said the settlement establishes a precedent under which the bad debts of...

The documents governing a proposed $25.0 billion settlement involving five major banks include greater incentives for principal reduction loan modifications on portfolio loans rather than loans in non-agency mortgage-backed securities. However, non-agency MBS investors remain concerned that they could take losses due to the settlement. The consent judgments against Ally Financial, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo were filed in federal court this week, a month after the settlement was announced by 49 state attorneys general and the federal government ...

The $25.0 billion settlement involving five bank servicers includes refinance eligibility requirements that differ from the settlement’s loan modification program. Only portfolio loans are eligible to meet the settlement’s refi requirements, unlike the mod program, which includes portfolio loans, mortgages in non-agency mortgage-backed securities and FHA loans. Under the pending settlement with 49 state attorneys general and the federal government, Ally Financial, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo must dedicate $2.78 billion toward refis for certain borrowers with negative equity ...

The Securities and Exchange Commission this week filed a lawsuit against three former executives of Thornburg Mortgage regarding disclosure and accounting issues in early 2008. The former executives of the now bankrupt jumbo lender denied the charges and vowed to prevail in court. “Thornburg’s executives schemed to drop a disingenuous annual report into the public realm at the most opportune moment possible while knowing it was merely the calm before the next storm,” said Donald Hoerl, director of the SEC’s Denver regional office. Larry Goldstone and Clay Simmons, the former CEO and chief financial officer of Thornburg, respectively, countered that ...

Industry experts digging through thousands of pages of legal documents associated with the $25 billion foreclosure settlement agreed to by five major servicers mostly found what they expected: a complex package of mixed forms of borrower support that the banks are expected to implement sooner rather than later. The settlements involving Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Ally Financial and 49 state attorneys general will have to be approved by the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC. Although critics found grounds for complaint about the varying incentives for loan modification and...

Dividend payments paid by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the U.S. Treasury for its continued financial support held down the two government-sponsored enterprises during the fourth quarter as Freddie would have otherwise posted a profit, while Fannie narrowed its losses during the final three months of 2011. Freddie actually reported $619 million in net income during the fourth quarter of 2011, compared to the third quarter’s net loss of $4.4 billion, before having to repay $1.7 billion in preferred stock dividends to the government. Under the terms of the GSEs’ purchase agreement, the Treasury is entitled...