Fitch Ratings downgraded Litton Loan Servicing’s residential mortgage servicer ratings in the wake of Ocwen Financial Corp. acquiring Litton’s residential servicing platform.
“The rating withdrawals are based on insufficient information regarding the Litton platform being provided to Fitch to maintain the ratings following the acquisition of Litton by Ocwen.”
Fitch downgraded Litton’s primary servicer rating for Alt-A products to RPS3 from RPS1. An RPS1 classification is the strongest, while an RPS5 rating is the weakest. The subprime product also was moved to RPS3 from RPS1, and the same is true for the primary specialty servicer rating for closed-end second lien products. Residential special servicer ratings also were moved to RSS3 from RSS1.
Only 4% of Americans who received the option of getting a free review to ensure their completed foreclosures did not contain errors accepted the invitation, according to a new article from USA Today.
Citing data from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the federal agency concluded that out of the 4.1 million people who received letters tied to the mortgage servicing settlement offering them foreclosure reviews, only 165,000 applied for an audit.
It’s not about austerity or stimulus, according to Institutional Risk Analytics.
Whether the Fed eventually gives into another round of quantitative easing is not the key issue facing the global economy, according to a new research report from IRA. Christopher Whalen argues in Institutional Risk Analytics’ latest newsletter that global leaders are erroneous in their belief that there are only two options — either fiscal austerity or stimulus.
“Framing the discussion between austerity and stimulus is a canard that has enveloped economists, commentators and policymakers in a collective delusion,” he writes. “There is no more normal. Significant economic growth — akin to the rates seen in the developing world since World War II and particularly since the 1980s — is something of the past. Over the past three decades, the United States’ growing economy was a function of falling interest rates and increasing fiscal deficits.” Going forward, Whalen said inflation, demographics and debt will generally keep G-20 economies from “returning to the happy days of economic growth above the expansion of working age populations.” He sees intrinsic growth in global economies as “nominal, at best.”
The FDIC and state regulators closed Alabama Trust Bank, National Association in Alabama on Friday. The deposits were then put into the control of Southern States Bank in Anniston, Ala. The one branch of Alabama Trust Bank will operate as a Southern States Bank.
The closing will cost the FDIC Deposit Insurance Fund approximately $8.9 million.
