Integrated Mortgage Solutions and REO Leasing Solutions LLC have joined forces to address rapidly growing loss mitigation and real estate-owned (REO) challenges in today’s housing market. According to recent reports, more than five million households are behind on their mortgages and risk foreclosure. With unemployment rates hovering near 10 percent nationwide, the number of distressed borrowers is likely to remain high as well over the next year. Servicers are in need of solutions that help them manage the increasing volume of defaulted loans on their portfolios.Read more

Lender Processing Services Inc. (LPS), a provider of integrated technology and services to the mortgage and real estate industries, has announced the launch of its professional short sale service. Offered through LPS Asset Management Solutions, LPS' short sale solution helps servicers respond more quickly to short-sale offers and close more transactions. In the current environment, servicers must be prepared to efficiently leverage alternatives like short sales.Read more

Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc., a Maryland corporation, has reported earnings of $10.8 million (excluding preferred stock dividend of $7.4 million) during the year ended 2009, as compared to a loss of $44.7 million in 2008. Also, in 2009, the company completed a purchase of 4.4 million shares of its preferred stock. As part of the purchase, which is considered a redemption for purposes of determining earnings per common share under GAAP, the company paid $1.3 million plus the dividends referred to above.Read more

Equator, a provider of software to the default servicing industry has announced the launch of its new professional real estate-owned (REO) solution. PRO REO encompasses all the power and best practices of Equator’s enterprise REO application in an affordable, quick and easy to adopt solution. Equator has long been the standard for many of the nation’s largest lenders and servicers. PRO REO is a resounding entry into the middle market.Read more

The National Groups, the parent company of the National Default Servicing LLC suite of mortgage service operations, announced that Mitchell Oringer and Richard T. Fikani have joined the firm, filling two new leadership positions. In response to the increased volume of distressed borrowers and the growing number of foreclosed and REO properties nationwide, The National Groups has been expanding its efforts to help reduce the exposure of both “At Risk” borrowers and "Value Challenged" collateral.Read more

Bank of America has realized significant gains modifying mortgages through the government's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). At the reporting deadline for the Department of Treasury's monthly servicer progress report expected to be issued this week, Bank of America had quadrupled the number of completed modifications for its customers since the previous month's report.Read more

“We will be relentless in our investigation of corporate and financial wrongdoing, and will not hesitate to bring charges, where appropriate, for criminal misconduct on the part of businesses and business executives.” These were the words of Attorney General Eric Holder, quoted in a Nov. 17 press release announcing that President Barack Obama has established, by Executive Order, an interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force whose job is to combat financial crime.Read more

Never has it been more important for underwriters and brokers to assess and understand the reliability of the loan data they rely upon. Such a large portion of underwriting is essentially about turning provided data into decisionable loan information. “Bad” or more likely “fuzzy” data going into underwriting increases the risk of generating poor loan information and funding riskier loans.Read more

Clayton Holdings LLC, a leader in providing customized risk analysis, loss mitigation, operational solutions and staffing services to the mortgage industry, has announced that Raymond A. Redlingshafer has joined the company as senior managing director. Redlingshafer brings more than 25 years of experience to Clayton Holdings including trading MBS and whole loans; managing a fixed-income institutional sales force and, founding a mortgage REIT and taking the company public.Read more

Homeowners with FHA-insured mortgage loans who are experiencing financial hardship are now eligible for loss mitigation assistance before they fall behind on their mortgage payments. Previously, these homeowners were not eligible for such assistance until after they had missed payments. The Helping Families Save Their Home Act of 2009 signed into law by President Obama expanded FHA's authority to use its loss mitigation tools to assist FHA borrowers avoid foreclosure to include those facing "imminent default" as defined by the Secretary.Read more