As mortgage servicing rights on hundreds of billions of dollars in residential mortgages change hands, a shift is occurring with the players in the government’s loan modification program.
The Obama administration reported that 878,753 permanent loan modifications processed through the Home Affordable Modification Program were active as of May.
A month earlier, the total was 878,753 active permanent loan modifications, while 810,443 HAMP modifications were active as of May 2012.
May’s total increased 8,715 modifications from April, up from the prior month’s gain of 3,960. The latest increase wasn’t quite as good, however, as the 8,905 gain in May 2012.
The biggest gain in May was with Nationstar Mortgage LLC: 68,177. However, the Lewisville, Texas-based firm hasn’t reported HAMP activity since March 2011, when it had just 23,629 active permanent modifications. The sudden appearance on the list likely reflects its acquisition of mortgage servicing rights on $215 billion in residential loans from Bank of America Corp. in January.
Last month’s second-biggest gain was made at Ocwen Financial Corp., where 37,467 more permanent HAMPs were in place than in April. Ocwen’s total reflects its acquisition of MSRs on $85 billion in loans from Ally Bank. On the other side of Ocwen’s gain was GMAC Mortgage LLC, which went from reporting 35,259 active HAMPs in April to none in May.
Next was Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., where active permanent HAMPs increased by 2,340 to 129,069 in May.
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., gained 1,243 to finish May with 148,493 active permanent modifications.
After that was a 640 gain at Select Portfolio Servicing and an increase of 81 at CitiMortgage Inc.
Reflecting the sale to Nationstar, BofA had a loss of 14,415 active permanent HAMPs — ending the month with 99,109.
