The PNC Financial Services Group announced the election of William S. Demchak by the board of directors as president of the corporation and PNC Bank, the principal banking subsidiary. Demchak has been senior vice chairman of PNC since 2009 and has held supervisory responsibility for all PNC businesses since 2010.
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Settlement negotiations between state attorneys general and the top five servicers have dragged on for more than a year now throughout frequent reports that a settlement is close. Working out a deal that banks feel is fair and that attorneys general feel serves their states' residents has been challenging at best. However, with a settlement once again reportedly "weeks away," it appears the proposal on the table is agreeable to more than just the five banks involved from day one. Both U.S. Bancorp and PNC may sign on, according to multiple reports.
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The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Reserve, and the Office of Thrift Supervision announced formal enforcement actions Wednesday against 14 mortgage servicers and two firms that provide foreclosure-related services to the industry - LPS and MERS. The consent orders are the result of regulators' investigations into robo-signing allegations and represent a settlement with the firms involved, at least in part. Both the OCC and Fed say they believe monetary sanctions in these cases are also warranted, and they plan to pursue such actions separately.
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Mortgage bankers originated $110 billion of commercial and multifamily mortgages during 2010 - an increase of 36 percent from 2009, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. A separate report from Jones Lang LaSalle corroborates the trade group's assessment of a resurgence in the financing market and indicates even stronger growth in 2011, even without the predicted surge is distressed sales. Wells Fargo is ranked as the largest servicer of commercial and multifamily mortgages.
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New data from federal regulators show that the nation's largest banks and thrifts repossessed nearly 187,000 homes during the third quarter of 2010. The number of foreclosures completed during the three-month period is up 57.5 percent from a year earlier.
The report shows that new foreclosures initiated also rose to more than 382,000. Although foreclosure activity increased during the quarter, servicers reported almost twice as many home retention actions as completed home forfeiture actions.
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The headline foreclosure news for the past couple of months has been the suspension of foreclosures by a handful of lenders after robo-signers and procedural deficiencies were uncovered in their servicing shops.
The foreclosure tracking firm ForeclosureRadar says while the announcements initially focused on 23 judicial foreclosure states outside of the company's coverage area, GMAC, PNC, and Bank of America all later expanded their suspensions, and the impact is now beginning to show up in non-judicial West Coast states.
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Industry data released Monday shows that the biggest originator of home loans is based on the West Coast, while the biggest mortgage servicer is based on the East Coast. With more than $100 billion in new home loans, Wells Fargo held onto the top spot among mortgage originators during the third quarter of this year. Bank of America took the lead spot in the mortgage servicer rankings, with just over $2 trillion in residential home loans in its servicing portfolio as of September 30th.
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New data released this week shows that the nation's largest banks are holding monstrous volumes of soured home loans.
According to an analysis by Weiss Ratings, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo each reported more than $20 billion in single-family mortgages currently foreclosed or in the process of foreclosure as of midyear. In addition, for each dollar these banks held of mortgages in foreclosure, there were another $2 in loans in the pipeline that were 30 days or more past due.
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The New York state court system has instituted a new filing requirement that officials say will prevent wrongful foreclosures and protect the integrity of the process.
Lenders' counsel are now required to file an affirmation certifying that they have reviewed and verified the accuracy of foreclosure documents. The new mandate is in response to recent disclosures by major mortgage lenders of potential deficiencies in notarization and so-called "robosigning" of supporting paperwork.
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The highest counsels from all 50 states have teamed up to launch a coordinated investigation of the mortgage servicing industry.
Attorneys general from every state, as well as banking and mortgage regulators in more than three dozen states, have formed what they're calling the Mortgage Foreclosure Multistate Group to examine the practice of so-called "robo-signing" among mortgage servicers. The probe was prompted by the recent foreclosure suspensions from four lenders and one subprime servicer.
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