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Southern Title placed into receivership by Virginia state commission - UPDATE
Posted Date: Wednesday, December 21, 2011
The State Corporation Commission (SCC) of Virginia has been named
receiver of Southern Title Insurance Corp. by the Circuit Court of the
city of Richmond. Southern Title and the commission determined that the
receivership was necessary to protect the interests of policyholders and
creditors.
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A.M. Best removes Fidelity from under review status, affirms rating
Posted Date: Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Back in July, ratings organization A.M. Best placed the Fidelity
National Group under "review with negative implications" as the sale of
its flood insurance business was announced. This week, A.M. Best Co.
removed the group from review with negative implications and affirmed
its ratings.
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Urban Lending Solutions ready for HARP 2.0 influx
Posted Date: Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Estimates differ concerning how much the Home Affordable Refinance
Program (HARP) revisions will influence the refinance market in 2012,
but Urban Lending Solutions announced that it is ready for an influx of
activity.
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GSEs under microscope: SEC files complaint against execs; subcommittee approves proposal
Posted Date: Tuesday, December 20, 2011
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged six former top executives
from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with securities fraud, claiming the
government sponsored enterprises misled the nation regarding its
subprime mortgage loan holdings. Read on for more from the SEC complaint
and an update on the latest GSE reform proposal.
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WFG adds VP, state counsel for New York office
Posted Date: Tuesday, December 20, 2011
WFG National Title Insurance Co. has named a new vice president, state
counsel for its New York agency office, who will help grow its New York
agent base as well as providing underwriting support for the agency
operation in that state. Read on for more.
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Poll: What do you expect to happen in 2012?
Posted Date: Tuesday, December 20, 2011
2012 — it has an ominous and futuristic ring to it, doesn’t it? For the
title industry, it might be more ominous than futuristic though, as the
past problems in the mortgage industry are still lingering and weighing
down business. …. Or are they? The Title Report asks you — what do you expect business to look like in 2012? Vote, leave a comment and let us know!
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NextAce brings back co-founder as VP of sales
Posted Date: Tuesday, December 20, 2011
NextAce Corp., a provider of automated real property intelligence to the
financial industry, announced the appointment of a vice president of
sales who will lead all sales efforts, manage client acquisitions, and
expand customer and vendor relationships. Read on for more information.
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First Look: Delinquencies increased in November
Posted Date: Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Lender Processing Services Inc., a provider of integrated technology,
data and analytics to the mortgage and real estate industries, reported
the following “first look” at November 2011 month-end mortgage
performance statistics derived from its loan-level database of nearly 40
million mortgage loans. Read on for the latest numbers.
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Nevada attorney general sues LPS for fraud, LPS responds
Posted Date: Monday, December 19, 2011
Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto announced a lawsuit against
Lender Processing Services Inc., DOCX, LLC, LPS Default Solutions Inc.
and other subsidiaries of LPS (collectively known LPS) for engaging in
deceptive practices against Nevada consumers. Read on for more about the
allegations.
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WFG underwriting counsel receives award from LLTA
Posted Date: Monday, December 19, 2011
The vice president and Louisiana underwriting counsel for WFG National
Title’s Louisiana agency group was awarded the Louisiana Land Title
Association’s Title Person of the Year Award.
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Marketing company touts its online savvy to title industry
Posted Date: Friday, December 16, 2011
With the amount of homebuyers that are now searching for real estate
online, a new marketing agency is promoting its services to capture
those eyeballs. Read on for more from the company’s release and how it
fits into the title industry.
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First American announces quarterly cash dividend
Posted Date: Friday, December 16, 2011
First American Financial Corp. announced that its board of directors has
declared a regular quarterly cash dividend payable on Jan. 17, 2012, to
shareholders of record as of Dec. 30, 2011.
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ALTA adds another lobbying voice
Posted Date: Friday, December 16, 2011
The American Land Title Association, the national trade association of
the land title insurance industry, appointed a director of government
affairs. Read on for more information.
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Ernst: RESPA-related losses on the decline
Posted Date: Friday, December 16, 2011
Will RESPA compliance losses decrease in the industry in 2012? That's
the assertion of an internal study from Ernst Publishing Co. The results
are based on a study of users of the firm's Smart Query II recording
fee and tax calculator.
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November data confirms oncoming foreclosure wave
Posted Date: Thursday, December 15, 2011
A spokesperson from RealtyTrac discusses the 2011 foreclosure data with
us recently, and the latest numbers from November further illustrate his
point. Even though there was a 3 percent month-over-month decrease in
filings and a 14 percent year over year drop, RealtyTrac believes this
all equates to a renewed foreclosure wave in 2012. Read on for more.
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Kansas Secured Title expands with recent purchases
Posted Date: Thursday, December 15, 2011
Kansas Secured Title and Abstract Co. Inc. has been in expansion mode
lately, purchasing several other title agencies in the state. Read on
for more about its latest acquisition.
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ClosingCorp announces enhancements for SmartGFE calculator
Posted Date: Thursday, December 15, 2011
ClosingCorp, a real estate closing cost data and technology company,
announced new enhancements to its SmartGFE Calculator that will provide
discounted refinance rates and conditional fees. Read on for more about
the update.
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Second round of draft closing documents released
Posted Date: Thursday, December 15, 2011
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its latest round of
prototypes for the combined HUD-1/Truth In Lending disclosures. This
time, the CFPB decided to make one form similar to the current HUD-1 and
the other similar to the initial disclosures it’s been working on. Read
on for a closer look at the prototypes.
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Fitch analysts discuss 2012 title insurance business
Posted Date: Thursday, December 15, 2011
According to analysts at Fitch Ratings, 2011 was moderately better than
expected for the title insurance business overall, but this was largely
driven by expense reductions undertaken by the big four national
underwriters. Read on for more of The Title Report’s chat with the title insurance analysts.
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Refinances drive an increase in mortgage activity this week
Posted Date: Thursday, December 15, 2011
Refinance activity increased again while purchase applications
decreased, giving refinance work its biggest share of the market this
year. Read on for more data from the Weekly Mortgage Applications
Survey.
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After the freeze: What does the REO landscape look like?
Posted Date: Wednesday, December 14, 2011
It’s not overstating the issue to say that there are way too many
foreclosures out in the marketplace right now, but according to data
from RealtyTrac, the totals are not as bad as they could be — and will
be going forward. Read on for The Title Report’s interview with RealtyTrac about what the market will look like in 2012.
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Editor's note: Is 2012 the end of the world or the start of something new?
Posted Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2011
2012 is almost upon us! So I guess that means it’s time to stock up on
bottled water and canned goods or say our last few prayers because this
is going to be Armageddon — but FOR REAL this time … Right? See what
editor Chris Crowell has to say about the issue and how it even remotely
connects to your title business.
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Report: NAR to downwardly revise home sales dating back to 2007
Posted Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Numbers from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) came into
question at the beginning of 2011, and since then the trade group has
worked to adjust its formula and figures. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal,
NAR will release its downwardly revised statistics on home sales next
week along with its latest set of data. Read on for more information
from the report.
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Ohio title agent pleads guilty in $5.6M mortgage fraud
Posted Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2011
An Ohio title agent pleaded guilty in a U.S. district court to one count
of conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of his role in a $5.6
million mortgage fraud scheme. Read on for more from the case.
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Clear Capital: Home prices show 14 months of yearly declines
Posted Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Clear Capital released its Home Data Index (HDI) Market Report with data
through November 2011. Though the national year-over-year price change
of -2.2 percent showed slight improvement over last month’s report (-2.8
percent), it marked 14 consecutive months of yearly declines. Read on
for more from the report.
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Improving markets bump to 41 in December
Posted Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2011
First American Financial Corp. has teamed up with the National
Association of Home Builders (NAHB) to release the Improving Markets
Index (IMI), which is meant to identify metro areas that have shown at
least six months of improvement in employment and housing prices and an
increase in housing permits. Read on for more from this report.
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Former owner of Southern Star Title Co. gets 9 years in prison
Posted Date: Monday, December 12, 2011
Rogelio “Roy” Ibanez Jr., 46, of Mission, Texas, who originally pleaded
guilty this summer to defrauding customers of his title company, was
sentenced to nine years in prison by Senior U.S. District Judge David
Hittner. Read on for more information from the case.
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Ohio title agent, husband indicted on fraud charges
Posted Date: Monday, December 12, 2011
A federal grand jury has charged a title agent, her husband, an employee
and an associate with devising a scheme to defraud at least four
lending institutions of approximately $7 million in mortgage loans
between April 2006 and April 2008. Read on for more information from the
court documents.
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Stewart adds commercial vet to national business development team
Posted Date: Friday, December 9, 2011
Stewart National Title Services announced the addition of a vice
president, national business development who will be responsible for
expanding Stewart’s national and multinational commercial business both
in the greater Chicago area and across the United States
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Attorneys Title Agency acquires another Michigan agent
Posted Date: Friday, December 9, 2011
Attorneys Title Agency, a full-service agent with 25 offices throughout
the state of Michigan, just added to its total with a recent acquisition
of another local title agency. Read on for more.
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ClosingCorp announces new closing cost data tool
Posted Date: Thursday, December 8, 2011
ClosingCorp, a closing cost data and technology company, announced that
it has launched DART, a data service that will provide recording fee and
transfer tax amounts for title and settlement professionals to use for
closing transactions. Read on for more details.
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Builders forced to the sidelines until lending improves
Posted Date: Thursday, December 8, 2011
The commercial banks on which homebuilders and developers largely rely
to finance their projects continued in this year’s third quarter to hold
tight reins on acquisition, development and construction loans
(AD&C), according to the most recent quarterly survey by NAHB’s
Economics and Housing Policy Group on the availability of credit to the
housing industry.
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Purchase applications at highest level since August
Posted Date: Thursday, December 8, 2011
One week they are up, another week they are down, and this week mortgage
applications are back up. After sharply falling the previous week,
refinance activity rebounded and purchases continued its recent steady
climb. Read on for more.
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Executive team changes continue at Stewart
Posted Date: Thursday, December 8, 2011
Stewart Information Services Corp.’s newly appointed chief executive officer, Matt Morris,
announced a restructured executive team to “capitalize on Stewart’s
strengths and further align the organization for smart growth and
continued market leadership in the real estate services industry,”
according to the company. Read on for all of the movement.
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First American settles BofA lawsuit, drops plan to acquire CoreLogic
Posted Date: Wednesday, December 7, 2011
National underwriter First American Financial Corp. mentioned during its
third quarter earnings conference call that a settlement of its lawsuit
with Bank of America and Fiserv Solutions was likely during the fourth
quarter. This prediction held true, but perhaps cost more than First
American envisioned. The company also announced it is dropping plans to
acquire CoreLogic. Read on for more.
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Andiamo Corp divests non-profitable title agency division
Posted Date: Wednesday, December 7, 2011
The board of directors for the Andiamo Corp. agreed to the terms of a
letter of intent to divest its non-profitable title insurance agency
division. The transaction is subject to due diligence and is scheduled
to close on Dec. 31. Read on for the company’s reasoning.
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Stewart brings aboard underwriting counsel, regional business development
Posted Date: Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Stewart Title Co. and Stewart National Title Services announced new
additions this week. Stewart National Title Services added a vice
president and commercial underwriting counsel, and Stewart Title Co.
added a vice president, business development officer of the Mid-Atlantic
region. Read on for more.
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Dodd-Frank stirs up affiliated business debate
Posted Date: Tuesday, December 6, 2011
The Dodd-Frank Act contains more than 2,000 pages, and among those pages
are plenty of rules, big and small, that touch businesses across the
country. One small rule, that has been somewhat overlooked, could
severely change the way affiliated title agencies do business. This rule
is no longer being overlooked because the House Financial Services
Committee is going to hold a hearing, possibly the week of Dec. 19, to
consider legislation to change the language of the rule.
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