The MBA’s servicing conference is taking place, and it is an important subject, along with the impact of the 30bp cut in MIP for FHA borrowers. Owning servicing rights certainly helped the bottom lines for many lenders last year, some would say it “saved their bacon.” There are always those warning us of impending doom and gloom scenarios regarding the trillions of mortgages outstanding. But really, come on. We may see an uptick in delinquencies and foreclosures, possibly because the numbers are so low now there’s nowhere to go but up. Borrowers have outstanding credit quality, and huge amounts of equity. And investors and the government offer many loss mitigation options. The industry has other things to worry about. Meanwhile, owners of mortgage servicing rights continue to sell packages, large and small, for various reasons, not the least of which is to raise cash. For the uninitiated who’d like to know exactly what a “servicing package” looks like, two that just popped up yesterday were a $596 million pool offered by MIAC and a $2B Government bulk servicing rights offering from Phoenix Capital, Inc, “from a well-capitalized Seller.” (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by Agile, bringing the mortgage capital markets into a new digital era. From lenders to dealers, Agile is the new way to quote MBS. Listen to an interview with Luca Dahlhausen and Mark Mclaughlin on the interaction between brokers, real estate agents, lenders, and technology.)