Dear Colleague,

The Mortgage Servicing Conference recently held in Dallas was such a hot meeting (lenders and agency speakers were mobbed like rock stars!) that it was a no-brainer to schedule a second servicing-related show. So get ready for Best Practices in Loss Mitigation, to be held July 20-21 in Dallas!

In an era of overdues, defaults and foreclosures, loss mitigation has taken center stage in lender efforts to stem losses due to the implosion of the market.

Foreclosures, for instance, continue to boom, despite some recent slowing due mostly to forbearances where lenders pledged not to pursue their remedies for a certain time. RealtyTrac has reported foreclosures for the first quarter of this year up 9% from the fourth quarter of 2008, and up nearly 26% from the year before.

Servicers will also want to know how much help they will get from the Obama rescue plan, which will take $75 billion from the TARP program to help with loan modifications and refinancings. To date, 14 servicers have received allotments of about $15 billion for the effort, or about 20% of the amount.

Also, they will want to know how a more normal circumstance, runoff from refis, will affect them. Low rates have sparked a refi boom, and valuable servicing could take a walk down the street to competitors. All these things will be covered in the Loss Mit meeting, so you should definitely start planning to attend!

See you there,

Mark Fogarty

Group Editorial Director
National Mortgage News
Chairman, Best Practices in Loss Mitigation