Ocwen Settles With NYDFS For $150 Million; Erbey Steps Down
Mortgage servicer Ocwen has agreed to pay a $100 million civil penalty to settle allegations brought by the New York Department of Financial...
Leveraging Data To Make Informed Lending Decisions
BLOG VIEW: The mortgage industry has evolved in terms of how it extrapolates raw data to make better lending decisions. In the past,...
Is ‘Patient’ Longer Or Shorter Than ‘Considerable Time’?
BLOG VIEW: Yesterday, we got another muddled, vapid, near-meaningless statement from the Federal Reserve as to when it might raise short-term interest rates....
Jonathan Herman: Technology Aids In Compliance, But Human Element Is Essential
PERSON OF THE WEEK: Jonathan M. Herman is a trial lawyer and a partner with Dallas-based The Middleberg Riddle Group, a regional law...
Uniting For Quality Appraisals
BLOG VIEW: There is not much the housing market relies on more heavily than accurate property valuations. In this time of continued economic...
Monitor Finds More Problems At Mortgage Servicer Ocwen
Joseph Smith, the federal monitor overseeing the 2012 national mortgage settlement, wrote in a recent report that mortgage servicer Ocwen Financial Corp. may...
More Borrowers Deserve A ‘H4P-Pier’ Retirement
BLOG VIEW: What if I told you that you could buy a house with no mortgage payments? You'd think I was crazy, wouldn't...
Aquiline Capital Partners To Become Majority Investor In LenderLive
New York-based private equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners has signed a deal to become a majority investor in end-to-end mortgage technology and services...
Ocwen Buys Pool Of Ginnie MSRs With UPB Of $253 Million
Mortgage servicer Ocwen Financial Corp. recently purchased 1,705 delinquent Federal Housing Administration-insured loans with an unpaid principal balance (UPB) of $253.1 million from...
Five Things Servicers Can Do Now To Improve Customer Satisfaction
BLOG VIEW: Under pressure from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), mortgage servicers are placing greater emphasis on improving the customer experience. It's...
Aaron Lynch: Lenders, Servicers Must Stay Wary Of Their ‘Technical Debt’
PERSON OF THE WEEK: Aaron Lynch is vice president of technology and chief technology officer for FICS, which offers a loan origination system...
Why Loan Officers Need To Invest Time In Surveys
BLOG VIEW: It seems that at this time, every year, mortgage professionals are being asked to take part in an industry survey. I...
Zillow: Buying Twice As Affordable As Renting
According to a recent Zillow analysis of third-quarter income and home value data, it is now more affordable to buy a home in...
Fannie, Freddie Lower Down Payment Requirements
In an effort to entice more first-time home buyers into the market, as well as to help lenders make more loans to 'underserved'...
New Index Shows First-Time Home Buyers Not So Absent After All
The American Enterprise Institute's (AEI) International Center On Housing Risk has released a new First-Time Buyer Mortgage Share Index (FBMSI) showing that first-time...
Rob Strickland: Customer Centricity Key To Lender Success
PERSON OF THE WEEK: Rob Strickland is senior vice president of sales and marketing for Blue Sage Solutions, a provider of next generation...
New Tool Will Protect N.Y. Homeowners From Foreclosure Rescue Scams
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Tuesday introduced AGScamHelp, a new website where homeowners battling foreclosure can check and see whether a...
Teresa Blake: Small Operational Changes Can Have Major Impact On Bottom Line
PERSON OF THE WEEK: Teresa Blake is practice director at Wipro Gallagher Solutions, a provider of end-to-end lending technology and services. MortgageOrb recently...
CFPB Expands, Clarifies Rules Related To Foreclosure
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is proposing numerous new rules for mortgage servicers to ensure that - in the words of CFPB...
The Right Product At The Right Time
BLOG VIEW: Albert Einstein was once quoted as saying that the definition of insanity is 'doing the same thing over and over again...