This past week, NPR ran an insightful series that focused in on how Fannie Mae is operationally responding to the nation’s housing crisis. For those of us that come out of the default management space, there may not be a ton of new ground here, but it is a good overview for those looking to open the door into the oft-hidden world of servicing troubled loans. Kudos to the folks at Fannie Mae and at Nationstar for opening up and discussing at least some of their operations with the press. Here’s Part 1 of the series, and here’s Part 2. What I found interesting is the notion now that ‘servicing matters’ — that we’re seeing employees in the servicing function value their role, and that they understand the critical role they now play in the nation’s recovery:

With delinquencies on home loans increasing, the demands on Fannie Mae and its loan servicers are likely to keep increasing. “As fast as we add staff to support, more and more homeowners are having issues and need and more and more help,” says Pam Anderson, director of servicing management for Fannie Mae. She says servicing companies are getting increasingly backlogged with work. But Anderson says people also care about her work more, and that makes her job more exciting. “It’s changed so significantly,” she says, “now that mortgage servicing is much more in the spotlight.”

I’m hearing from plenty of servicing execs that we’re now seeing a rethinking process around servicing, where some of a large company’s best and brightest resources are now being diverted into what was once seen as ‘black hole’ for any smart, aspiring manager.