Loan

A look at the loan servicers in Treasury's mortgage-modification program, the taxpayer money they could receive and the percentage of eligible loans they've offered to modify so far. The servicers will keep some of Treasury's money and will pass some of it on to investors and homeowners. (Modification figures are not available for some servicers because they joined the program too recently.)

FIRM: American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc.

COULD RECEIVE: $1,272,490,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: NA

FIRM: Aurora Loan Services LLC

COULD RECEIVE: $459,550,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 21 percent

FIRM: Bank of America Corp. and Countrywide Home Loans Servicing LP

COULD RECEIVE: $5,987,280,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 4 percent

FIRM: Bayview Loan Servicing LLC

COULD RECEIVE: $44,260,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 3 percent

FIRM: Carrington Mortgage Services LLC

COULD RECEIVE: $131,020.000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 4 percent

FIRM: CCO Mortgage

COULD RECEIVE: $16,520,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 6 percent

FIRM: JPMorgan Chase & Co. and EMC Mortgage Corp.

COULD RECEIVE: $3,407,100,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 20 percent

FIRM: CitiMortgage Inc.

COULD RECEIVE: $1,079,420,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 15 percent

FIRM: Citizens First Wholesale Mortgage Company

COULD RECEIVE: $30,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 27 percent

FIRM: Farmers State Bank

COULD RECEIVE: $170,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: NA

FIRM: First Bank

COULD RECEIVE: $6,460,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: NA

FIRM: First Federal Savings and Loan

COULD RECEIVE: $770,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 6 percent

FIRM: GMAC Mortgage Inc.

COULD RECEIVE: $1,017,650,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 20 percent

FIRM: Green Tree Servicing LLC

COULD RECEIVE: $91,010,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 4 percent

FIRM: Home Loan Services Inc.

COULD RECEIVE: $447,300,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 0 percent

FIRM: IBM Southeast Employees' Federal Credit Union

COULD RECEIVE: $870,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 6 percent

FIRM: Lake National Bank

COULD RECEIVE: $100,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 100 percent

FIRM: Mission Federal Credit Union

COULD RECEIVE: $860,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: NA

FIRM: MorEquity Inc.

COULD RECEIVE: $23,480,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: NA

FIRM: Mortgage Center LLC

COULD RECEIVE: $4,210,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: NA

FIRM: National City Bank

COULD RECEIVE: $294,980,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 0 percent

FIRM: Nationstar Mortgage LLC

COULD RECEIVE: $117,140,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 19 percent

FIRM: Ocwen Financial Corp. Inc.

COULD RECEIVE: $553,380,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 5 percent

FIRM: PNC Bank

COULD RECEIVE: $54,470,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: NA

FIRM: Purdue Employees Federa Credit Union

COULD RECEIVE: $1,090,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: NA

FIRM: Residential Credit Solutions

COULD RECEIVE: $19,400,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 20 percent

FIRM: RG Mortgage Corp.

COULD RECEIVE: $57,000,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 0 percent

FIRM: Saxon Mortgage Services Inc.

COULD RECEIVE: $632,040,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 25 percent

FIRM: Select Portfolio Servicing

COULD RECEIVE: $660,590,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 3 percent

FIRM: Shore Bank

COULD RECEIVE: $1,410,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: NA

FIRM: Technology Credit Union

COULD RECEIVE: $70,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 0 percent

FIRM: Wachovia Mortgage

COULD RECEIVE: $634,010,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 2 percent

FIRM: Wachovia Bank

COULD RECEIVE: $85,020,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: NA

FIRM: Wells Fargo Bank

COULD RECEIVE: $2,410,010,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 6 percent

FIRM: Wescom Central Credit Union

COULD RECEIVE: $540,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 28 percent

FIRM: Wilshire Credit Corp.

COULD RECEIVE: $453,130,000

NUMBER OF ELIGIBLE LOANS MODIFIED: 1 percent

Source: Treasury Department

The chief executive of the Nordic region's largest bank said lenders have yet to reach the pinnacle of their bad-debt problems as the worst recession in modern times will filter deeper into banks' books in coming quarters.

"The risk for somewhat higher loan losses has increased," Christian Clausen, CEO of Nordea Bank AB (NDA.SK), told Dow Jones Newswires, refering to both Nordea and the sector in general.

Clausen said banks should expect higher losses as the "worst recession in modern times" will trigger further bankruptcies and layoffs in coming years. Aside from its 3% of total lending exposure to the frail Baltic economies, Nordea is scrutinizing some hard-hit sectors in particular, including shipping, private equity and commercial real estate, which in total account for about 14% of its total lending.

Impaired loans in those areas have steadily inched higher, albeit from low levels, and Nordea has seized assets as well as launched restructuring plans for some troubled customers. In the second quarter, it "satisfactorily" completed more than 10 restructuring cases in private equity alone, and Clausen said he expects the rate of company restructuring to increase.

"Companies' restructuring and adapting to the new environment isn't going to go away," he said. "Of course, it depends on economic developments. We're seeing some positive signs now in the economy and if that accelerates maybe the recovery will come earlier. But right now I think we'll be well into 2010 before we see a real firm recovery."

Nordea earlier Tuesday reported an 11% drop year-on-year drop in attributable net profit to EUR616 million and said loan losses and provisions rose for the sixth consecutive quarter to EUR425 million, about 10% of which were actual write-offs. The net profit drop wasn't as bad as some analysts had forecast, however.

Clausen said loan losses and provisions could continue to rise before tapering off, although he added that he doesn't expect hugely higher losses than currently. The bank lifted its loan-loss ratio forecast for the full year to somewhat higher than the annualized rate in the fourth quarter, which amounted to about 50 basis points of total lending. The loan-loss ratio was 57 basis points in the second-quarter and 55 basis points in the first-half.

Clausen blamed the global economic recession for the hardships, but said some rays of opportunities have emerged because of it.

The bank is ready to use its recently reinforced capital buffer - strengthened by a EUR2.5 billion rig

THE implementation of the much-awaited new policy extending the validity of prepaid load credits will push through, but regulators yesterday decided to suspend a provision of the said memorandum circular.

National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) memorandum circular (MC) 06-07-2009, issued on July 15, suspends the implementation of Section 4 of MC 03-07-2009, which states that: “For each new load that is purchased, the amount of the unused loads earlier purchased that are still within the validity period shall be added to and accumulate to the new load. The new minimum validity or expiry period shall be based on the sum of the new load plus the unused load.”

Starting July 19, the validity of load credit worth P10 or less will be up to three days; up to seven days for a P10 to P20 load; up to 10 days for P20 to P30 load; up to 14 days for P30 to P40 load; up to 17 days for P40 to P50 load; 20 days for P50 to P60 load; up to 24 days for P60 to P70 load; up to 21 days for P70 to P80 load; up to 30 days for P80 to P90 load; up to 45 days for P100 to P150 load; up to 60 days for P150 to P200 load; up to 90 days for P200 to P300 load; up to 150 days for P300 to P600 load; and up to 180 days for P600 to P1,000 load.

If the prepaid mobile subscriber has unused load worth P2 and P10 in new load credit is purchased, the new validity or expiry period will be 15 days.

But mobile phone firms said they cannot comply with this provision, which compels them to combine the validity of the unused load with that of the new load. “It’s just not what our system is programmed to do right now,” said Smart Communications Inc. lawyer Roy Ibay in an interview.

 

At present, Smart’s policy is for its network to recognize the prevailing load validity. “While we do roll over the unused load to the newly purchased load, our policy is to recognize the validity of the new load purchased by the subscriber,” said Ibay.

Globe Telecom, for its part, said it practices the “roll-forward” policy. “Whichever has the longer expiry date is being followed now,” said Globe Telecom lawyer Froilan Castelo in a separate interview.

The NTC had just finished consultations with the suppliers of software and intelligent network of cellular firms. Commissioner Ruel Canobas agrees that the telco’s network platform is currently not designed to accommodate the agency’s proposals. “There is a need for sufficient time for hardware acquisition, software development, testing and deployment,” said Canobas.

Smart and Sun Cellular said it is best to adopt the roll-forward practice. “We support Globe’s existing policy on this. The industry is one on this. The roll-forward policy is an international practice,” added Ibay.

The NTC will meet again with the suppliers and telcos to decide which policy will be adopted. While Section 4 of the MC is suspended, the current practice of the telcos with regard to the old and new loads will remain until further notice, said Canobas.

The MC on guidelines on prepaid loads was issued on July 3. The same circular stated that a prepaid subscriber who requests for access to balance inquiry service through text messages should not be charged by the network operator.

The NTC said it issued this MC to “protect and promote the interest of subscribers of prepaid telecommunications services.”

Another new circular is set to take effect on July 23. The new rules will now prohibit content providers and phone firms from sending spam messages via text messaging service to all subscribers.

Only those who requested for promotional advertisements will receive value-added services (VAS) such as ringtones, horoscopes, commercial and promotional advertisements, and surveys.

Of late, the NTC has been receiving complaints on unexplained disappearance of load credits or what is popularly known as “vanishing load.”

“One of the major reasons for vanishing loads is the alleged opting-in of subscribers to contents and/or information services offered by the contents and/or information service providers,” the NTC said.

This practice, said the NTC, is the source of disputes between the subscribers and the information service providers. Under the old rules, the content providers are allowed to initiate the opting-in of subscribers to content or information services through push messages. However with the new MC, broadcast text messages will no longer be allowed on the handsets of cellular subscribers.