Fitch: U. S. Banks Trimming Mortgage Servicing Staff as Performance Improves
This staffing trend is in stark contrast with nonbank servicers, which are continuing to focus on servicing growth and whose borrowers generally still require more frequent interaction, driving their need for robust staffing.
The average number of full-time mortgage servicing employees at banks has fallen to approximately 4,000 from approximately 8,000 two years ago. The number of nonbank mortgage servicing employees has remained fairly stable at close to 2,000 over the same time period.
In addition to lower mortgage delinquencies, high credit quality portfolio additions mostly brought on by origination activity are also contributing to reduced staff among bank servicers. In fact, bank servicers now manage more than twice as many mortgage loans per employee compared to nonbank servicers, a comparison not likely to change to any great degree anytime soon.
In addition to the servicing staffing changes, highlights in the Handbook also include:
--Banks have been more active than nonbanks in offering repayment plans while their use of loan modifications has grown;
--Loan modifications are still the most prevalent form of loss mitigation for nonbank servicers and are being used 15-20% more frequently than bank servicers;
--Short sales are still playing a meaningful part in mortgage servicing; encompassing approximately 14% of bank loss mitigations and 19% of non-bank loss mitigations as of second quarter-2016.
Fitch's U. S. RMBS Servicer Handbook includes a description of all Fitch-rated servicers, their current servicer ratings and key rating drivers, portfolio size and key attributes, important trends, links to the full RMBS servicer reports, and Fitch analyst contact information. The portfolio data incorporates the latest quarterly updates from the servicers. Fitch updates the Handbook on a quarterly basis. These updates include rating changes, any changes to key rating drivers, and portfolio size and attribute data.
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