Tag Archives: Lenders & Servicers

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued Wednesday an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on guidelines related to the debt collection industry. "For decades, many consumers have reported various unacceptable practices in the debt collection industry. Today's action will allow us to hear from the public as we consider what rules are needed," said Richard Cordray, director of the CFPB. The bureau also announced it will begin adding consumer complaints about debt collections to its public database.

Asking prices rose 12.5 percent year-over-year in October blue metros and 11.1 percent in red metros, according to the Trulia Price Monitor.

Freddie Mac announced its multifamily division has received an initial commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) master servicer rating of CMS2 from Fitch Ratings--the highest initial rating ever assigned by Fitch for a master servicer.

Bill Griffin, EVP at Lender Processing Services (LPS), has been elected to serve on the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) board of directors, the company announced.

The nation's economy performed well above expectations in the third quarter, according to an advance GDP estimate released Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). BEA's report shows third-quarter growth rose to an annual rate of 2.8 percent, beating the second quarter's 2.5 percent. The median forecast among economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 2.0 percent growth. Real residential fixed investment, a measure of housing's contribution to the economy, increased 14.6 percent.

The national homeownership rate stands at 65.3 percent as of the end of the third quarter, up 0.3 percentage points from the previous quarter, but down 0.2 percentage points from last year, according to the Census Bureau. While the quarterly rise has some analysts expressing hope that housing has reached a turning point, others focused more on the slow pace of growth as a sign that young adults still aren't in a position to create their own households.

Fitch Ratings stated unabashedly a fear that has been whispered across the industry for the past several months--a looming bubble in some markets.

ReverseVision, Inc., announced the availability of its latest product: ReverseVision University, an online education platform to teach mortgage professionals about the reverse mortgage industry.

Mortgage application volume increased throughout October, but a substantial decline recorded in the month's final days has experts at Capital Economics doubting that the trend will continue for the time being. Using application numbers released by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), Capital Economics calculated a 7.5 percent increase in applications in October, pulling activity up from a five-month streak of declines. However, for the week ending November 1, MBA reported a 7.0 percent drop.

Freddie Mac announced Tuesday it has priced a $630 million offering of Structured Agency Credit Risk (STACR) debt notes, marking the second STACR offering in which private sources--not taxpayers--took on the credit risk. "STACR is part of Freddie Mac's strategy to share credit risk with private investors while also fostering an agency credit market," said David Lowman, EVP of single-family business for the GSE.