MortgageDaily News

The cost of funds index increased around 36 basis points in October from September, the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco reported. Compared to a year earlier, COFI was 111 BPS lower. The 10-year Treasury yield, however, tumbled below 3 percent.

All three ratings agencies have been busy downgrading subprime mortgage-backed securities. Updated loss projections led Moody's Investors Service to downgrade tranches of the several subprime securitizations. In addition, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services and Fitch Ratings announced downgrades to dozens of deals.

Smaller mortgage firms and lead purchasers are the target of Leadmark, a new offering from Mortech. A new sector of mortgage leads that has developed this year is loan modification leads, SalesProspects.com said in an announcement last month. Mortgage lead broker LeadPoint reported this month that it has seen a significant increase in the number of businesses turning to lead generation.

Pangea3 LLC has launched a unit to help mortgage lenders with loan modifications. The Federal Housing Finance Agency issued a letter to more than 40 mortgage servicers of private-label mortgage-backed securities calling for the adoption of a streamlined modification program for agency loans. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced last week that its streamlined modification program in effect at IndyMac Federal Bank is now available to all servicers and financial institutions.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency reported that cease-and-desist orders were recently issued against three financial institutions. The OCC reached formal agreements with another 12 banks. Removal-and-prohibition orders were issued against six individuals.