People get discouraged from taking mortgage loan modifications that are in their best interest by countless paperwork steps and little support from servicers, according to a Harvard University behavioral economist who says he has a solution. Piyush Tantia, the executive director of ideas42, a nonprofit behavioral economics research and development lab at Harvard, has been experimenting with how people respond to foreclosure. Behavioral economics blends psychology and economics to analyze and predict decisions based on how people actually behave. Tantia found that people often did not ...

Tradeweb claims its Round Robin functionality has curbed trade failures in the to be announced mortgage market to the tune of $166 billion since it was introduced in November. First, the service has reduced the “round robin” risk; that is, the risk associated with a chain of matched fails that frequently becomes a closed loop. The new technology enables institutional clients to pair-off TBA mortgage pool transactions with dealers, which reduces...

Ginnie Mae has agreed to issuer requests for changes regarding the collection and reporting of new pool data to provide clearer and more transparent information to investors. The changes were announced during a webinar with program participants in connection with eight new data elements on all single-family forward mortgages, which issuers are required to provide on all submissions beginning Sept. 1. Ginnie Mae announced the new requirements in APM 11-05, along with a new file layout that would accommodate the new data elements. The new data fields will show the following: combined loan-to-value ratio percent; total debt expense ratio...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau isn’t wasting any time in moving forward with its “know before you owe” integrated mortgage disclosure project. Late last week, it released highlights of the thousands of comments it received from the first round of its disclosure prototypes, and early this week it issued a second set of forms for public comment, this time focusing on borrower payments or fees necessary to close a mortgage. In the first round of prototypes (dubbed “Ficus Bank” and “Pecan Bank”), the back page was the same on both versions, whereas the front page ...

GMAC Mortgage is making “solid progress” in responding to strategic opportunities and expanding its outreach to borrowers – and real estate agents – via the virtual sales network it launched in the spring of 2010. However, it’s only half way toward meeting its year-end 2010 goal of bolstering its sales team to 200 associates. “We’ve made solid progress in this,” said Jim Olecki, spokesman for Ally Financial, the parent company. “It’s doing what we wanted it to do, which is serving the Realtor community and attracting new home buyers to ...

Purchasers of distressed mortgages or residuals seeking to service their own portfolio but not wanting to build or buy a servicing platform may take advantage of Ocwen Financial’s new product, PlatformPlus. PlatformPlus is a turnkey servicing operation specially designed for investors in nonperforming mortgages or residuals of non-agency securities that want to get more value from their loans. In discussions with hedge funds and other investors in distressed assets, Ocwen Financial found a desire among these entities for special servicing technology and expertise without having to ...

Occupancy fraud risk increased by 25 percent during the first quarter of 2011, wiping out four straight quarters of decline, according to a quarterly report released by Interthinx. Occupancy fraud occurs when investors say they intend to live at a certain property, but maintain their primary residence elsewhere. The goal is the lower downpayment and lower interest rate that comes with living in a home. The Miami and Detroit metro areas are the riskiest in terms of occupancy fraud – and have been for the last five quarters. Reno, NV, Orlando, and Charleston, SC, round out ...

Quicken Loans has rolled out a new mortgage loan program that covers all closing costs if the original loan is refinanced with Quicken within seven years. The program is called “Rate Drop Advantage,” and in order to qualify, a borrower must close a mortgage loan with Quicken Loans by Dec. 31. If the borrower decides to refinance in the next seven years – 90 days after the original loan closes to 84 months after close – the Rate Drop Advantage program will...

The Mortgage Bankers Association has asked the FHA to allow the use of electronic signatures on all FHA loan origination forms to help reduce fraud and other procedural issues in the home buying process. E-signatures are already acceptable under federal law and by the FHA under certain circumstances, the MBA noted in a letter to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The use of e-signatures helps reduce the time required to close a mortgage loan, which may lead to...

In a move that might bring more certainty to the role of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems in the foreclosure process, Fannie Mae is requiring lenders to more clearly identify MERS-registered mortgages. The government-sponsored enterprise already requires lenders to report the MERS Mortgage Identification Number for mortgages originated with MERS as the nominee for the mortgagee or assigned to MERS. Then two weeks ago, Fannie announced several updates to its selling guide having to do with MERS-registered mortgages, one of which is...