News

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a bulletin and interim final rule Tuesday to provide greater clarity to the market concerning mortgage servicing rules that take effect in January 2014. The clarifications address contact with delinquent borrowers, communications with family members after a borrower dies, and treatment of consumers who have filed for bankruptcy.

August marks the 18th consecutive month of rising home prices, according to FNC's Residential Price Index released Tuesday, indicating an indisputable recovery. However, FNC, a mortgage industry technology provider, is detecting some deceleration in the recovery and declares, ""It is clear that the recovery remains uneven across the nation.""

Liberty Title & Escrow Company announced the hiring of Jessica Perry as VP of default operations. Perry will manage REO title and closing operations as well as assist with client relations.

Centier Bank is working with MortgageKeeper Referral Services to connect the bank's customers and employees to vetted, local community resources for services like job training or utility payment assistance. MortgageKeeper says borrowers with access to these resources have additional opportunities to cure mortgage defaults.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) called on all approved mortgagees and lenders to be sensitive to the financial hardships some borrowers are facing as a result of the federal government shutdown, including those subject to furlough, layoff, or a reduction in income. The agency is instructing its industry partners to extend informal forbearance plans and exhaust all available loss mitigation options.

Are Americans so accustomed to the ineffectiveness and triviality of Congress that the threat of a third week with essentially no governing body barely registers a blip on consumers' confidence scale? The University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment was better than many analysts were expecting given the situation in Washington, dropping from 77.5 at the end of September to 75.2 at mid-October.

Freddie Mac has announced the completion of its first multifamily bulk loan sale to a global real estate investment firm. An affiliate of Colony Capital purchased the GSE's portfolio of 27 performing loans with an unpaid principal balance of $195 million.

Fiserv, Inc., a provider of financial services technology, announced its Common Origination Platform has been selected as the platform of choice for Virginia's Old Point National Bank (OPNB). A Fiserv client since 1996, OPNB possesses $845.3 million assets and offers banking services to both retail and commercial customers.

As the industry prepares to comply with the January implementation of new rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac updated their servicing guides to bring GSE standards in line with the new regulations. Among the guideline changes, servicers are prohibited from mentioning foreclosure earlier than 121 days into delinquency.

Security California Bancorp, the holding company for Security Bank of California headquartered in Riverside, announced the appointment of Dolly L. Nugent as SVP and chief compliance officer. She is also a member of the bank's strategy and planning committee and oversees its Bank Secrecy Act Program.