National Mortgage News articles from April 2004

National Mortgage News archives from April 2004

Inside Track.
April 5, 2004... OPEN FORUM 'Zero Down' Helps First Timers 4 EDITORIAL Halfway There 4 STREET SMARTS Jobs, GSE Situation Will Drive Rates This Week, But Which Way? 5 COMMERCIAL One-Stop Shopping Increasingly Important in...

Fannie, Too Might Have to Restate Earnings.
April 5, 2004... Last week, a few hours before a Senate panel was set to debate historic legislation to strengthen regulation of all housing GSEs, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight laid a bombshell on Fannie Mae, saying publicly that the...

CFC Has Plans To Double Net.
April 5, 2004... Countrywide Financial Corp. executives filled in more details about their ambitious five-year growth plan last week, telling investors that the company can more than double its earnings. But growing its mortgage banking market share is only...

Shelby's GSE Bill Advances.
April 5, 2004... The Senate Banking Committee late last week approved a GSE bill by a 12-9 vote that would allow a new regulator to place Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into receivership unless Congress passed a resolution that disapproves of the action. ...

A Tale of Two GSE Bills.
April 5, 2004... Original Shelby Bill * GSE regulator has full receivership powers. * GSE regulator can raise minimum capital requirements. * No change in GSEs' affordable housing requirements. * Strong executive heads GSE regulatory agency...

Did Ameriquest Earn $1B Last Year?
April 5, 2004... Not only was the privately held Ameriquest Mortgage the No. 1 subprime funder last year, but it may have earned close to $1 billion, pretax, industry sources told NMN. According to Moody's Investors Service, the Orange, Calif.-based...

Top Subprime Servicers At 12/31/03.
April 5, 2004... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 Household Fin'l (E)(1) Prospect Hts, IL 2 CitiFinancial Baltimore, MD 3 Homecomings Bloomington, MN 4 Option One Mtg...

Volume Drops In New Jersey.
April 5, 2004... Mortgage lending to borrowers who cannot qualify for prime loans has plummeted in New Jersey since the state's Home Ownership Security Act went into effect last November, according to a new study by Richard DeMong, a finance professor at the...

California LOS Firm in Trouble?
April 5, 2004... Mortgage software provider Provantedge Technologies held conference calls this past week with its lender clients in an emergency plea for capital, sources told NMN. According to one source, the loan origination software vendor did not meet...

Pols Express Concerns For National B&C Bill.
April 5, 2004... Lawmakers last week expressed their hope of someday passing legislation to establish national fair-lending standards for subprime funders, but getting a bill passed that everyone likes could be difficult. At a subprime hearing, Rep. Maxine...

Jackson Wins Vote To Be HUD Secretary.
April 5, 2004... The Senate Banking Committee has unanimously approved the nomination of Alphonso Jackson to be the new secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The banking committee also approved a bill last week that extends the...

Fed to Study J.P. Morgan, Bank One Merger.
April 5, 2004... The Federal Reserve Board has decided to hold public meetings in New York and Chicago in April on the proposed $58 billion merger of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Bank One Corp., in response to objections from consumer groups and state officials...

Halfway There.
April 5, 2004... The recent scuttling of proposed Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act reform by the Department of Housing and Urban Development was a welcome win for those (like us) who think that de-consolidation of the mortgage industry is a healthy thing....

'Zero Down' Helps First Timers.
April 5, 2004... Mr. Weicher recently testified before the House Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity. Excerpts of his remarks are presented as our Open Forum. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today regarding the administration's Zero...

Jobs, GSE Situation Will Drive Rates This Week, But Which Way?
April 5, 2004... Given the weight the market last week was giving to political discussion of proposed government-sponsored enterprise regulation and employment statistics that were pending at press time, I think it's best not to consider what happened last week...

One-Stop Shopping Increasingly Important in Commercial RE Financing.
April 5, 2004... As interest rates have moved lower and lower in the last few years, lenders have increasingly moved toward providing one-stop shopping for commercial real estate financing, in a bid to attract and retain borrowers, with the trend even spilling...

Coventry Raises Funds for Retail Acquisitions.
April 5, 2004... Coventry Real Estate Advisors has raised $330 million in equity capital from institutional investors for its Coventry Real Estate Fund II. Acquisitions for the fund, which will invest in "value-added" retail properties nationwide, will be...

CRE Still Getting Plenty of Capital.
April 5, 2004... Capital continues to flow into the commercial real estate sector, according to a first-quarter 2004 survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Peter Korpacz, director, PricewaterhouseCoopers' global strategic real estate research practice, believes...

Freddie Faces Scrutiny of Multifamily Swap Transaction.
April 5, 2004... Freddie Mac's purchase of $6 billion in multifamily loans from Washington Mutual has come under government scrutiny and GSE critics are trying to get Congress to investigate the transaction, which Freddie employed to boost its affordable...

At a Glance: Countrywide Today... - ...And in 2008?
April 5, 2004... 2003 Origination Market Share: 11.6% 2008 Origination Share Goal: 30% Earnings 2003: $3.8 billion Earnings Goal for 2008: $7.5 billion Source: Countrywide Financial Corporation Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights...

Refi Boom for Reverse Mortgages?
April 5, 2004... Reverse mortgage lenders are expecting a refinancing boom now that the Department of Housing and Urban Development has finally issued a rule that reduces the costs of refinancing a federally insured reverse mortgage. "We are very pleased...

Cendant to Segment Out Mortgage Results.
April 5, 2004... Cendant Mortgage here, beginning in the first quarter, will start disclosing its earnings, a first for the unit. The decision by the parent company, Cendant Corp., to separate out the results of Cendant Mortgage and its settlement services...

Document Services: A Tad Here, A Tad There.
April 5, 2004... Key players in document services are continually adding more spices to the recipe as users are demanding more integrations to make the flow of documents more seamless and efficient. Automation is another trend with the advent and acceptance of...

Guardian Mortgage Takes Doc Prep To The Next Level.
April 5, 2004... Guardian Mortgage Documents, Lakewood, Colo., has just released a new product dubbed GMD's Transaction Management System, which includes the basic document preparation functions with workflow capabilities and other features designed to make it...

DesertDocs Invests to Let Lenders Do Things Quickly.
April 5, 2004... When Tempe, Ariz.-based Desert Document Services announced having completing a massive XHTML forms conversion of 35,000 documents in October 2003, the news was that the conversion enabled sending data and formatted documents together...

Integration Made Quick and Easy.
April 5, 2004... With the advent of XML technology and Web services, the days of an integration taking months to complete are long gone. Recently Entyre completed an integration with Dexma literally in a matter of a few days. "Moving data back and forth...

eLynx's uSign and PRO Make E-Mortgage Plausible.
April 5, 2004... When eLynx held its March user conference in Phoenix, the star of the show was the eLynx uSign tool powered by Silanis. The installation used to demonstrate uSign was for Brown Deer, Wis.-based Guaranty Bank. Guaranty Bank began using the...

CNL to Go with Fiserv's easyLENDER for Ease of Use.
April 5, 2004... CNL Mortgage, Orlando, Fla., has signed up to use Fiserv's loan origination easyLENDER product to help it grow from a $100-million shop to a $1-billion shop in the near future. "EasyLENDER is broken into two products, easyLENDER Mortgage,...

DocsDirect and Brooks Systems Financial Link Up.
April 5, 2004... McKinney, Texas-based DocsDirect, a full-service document solutions provider that developed a Web-based mortgage closing document solution here, has integrated with New London, Conn.-headquartered Brooks Systems Financial Technologies' math...

Data-Vision Doubles Active Client Base.
April 5, 2004... Data-Vision Inc., a provider of electronic document delivery services, reported triple-digit growth results for 2003 that included a doubling of its active client base over 2002. Total business volume was up 248% in 2003, including an...

Promotion Spotlight: Gunnar Bergstrom.
April 5, 2004... Ellie Mae Inc., a provider of desktop and Web-enabled mortgage industry productivity technology based in Dublin, Calif., has appointed Gunnar Bergstrom, a prior president of Electronic Mortgage Services at BCE Emergis Inc., vice president,...

Refunds to New Jersey Borrowers.
April 5, 2004... More than 700 New Jersey consumers will be refunded an average of $1,716 each as a result of a Department of Banking and Insurance examination into the business practices of American General Financial Services Inc. The company, which...

Inside Track.
April 12, 2004... OPEN FORUM Homeownership Gap Still Exists 4 AFFORDABLE HOUSING HAND Under Duress As Biggest Supporters Leave 6 SPECIAL REPORT Preconvention Special Edition Given that Washington, D.C.'s politicians and...

No Mandate for GSE Reform.
April 12, 2004... Shortly after the Senate Banking Committee approved a GSE regulator bill by a narrow margin, it seems almost everybody turned theirs back on the bill. The party-line vote of 12-9 gave the Republicans the right to claim a victory. However,...

Tougher AH Goals Set For Two GSEs.
April 12, 2004... The Department of Housing and Urban Development is proposing tougher affordable housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that will force them to increase their purchases of loans that finance low-income and minority homebuyers. ...

Countrywide In Commercial.
April 12, 2004... Countrywide Financial is entering the commercial mortgage market in an effort that will leverage its existing residential mortgage-backed securities platform. The residential mortgage lender has formed a division, Countrywide Commercial...

Illinois: State Law Prevails.
April 12, 2004... The Illinois Appellate Court for the First Judicial District here has ruled that state law pre-empts two federal laws that ban mortgage lenders from writing high-fee, high-interest and subprime loans. In U.S. National Association v. Clarke,...

RESPA Charge for Lender.
April 12, 2004... HomeBanc Mortgage Corp. is the subject of a government inquiry into possible Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act violations involving its alliances with nearly 100 real estate brokers and homebuilders. The Atlanta-based company, which is...

Top Correspondent Lenders in 2003.
April 12, 2004... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 Countrywide Fin'l Calabasas, CA 2 Washington Mutual Seattle, WA 3 Chase Home Finance Edison, NJ 4 Wells Fargo Hm Mtg San...

OCC Under Pressure to Weaken Pre-Emption of State 'Predatory' Rules.
April 12, 2004... Comptroller John Hawke is coming under increasing congressional pressure to modify his agency's pre-emption rules so that the states can enforce their predatory lending laws against national banks and their mortgage subsidiaries. Last...

Capital City Buys Synovus for $28M.
April 12, 2004... Capital City Bank Group Inc., a financial services company that provides mortgage banking, has paid $28.1 million to acquire Quincy State Bank from Synovus Trust Co., a Georgia-based multifinancial services company. The move is part of the...

North Carolina Loses and Montreal Wins in BCE Restructuring.
April 12, 2004... BCE Emergis Inc. here is in the process of downsizing its Greensboro, N.C., office by this October and will completely reposition its electronic invoicing product for a May 2004 rollout. "We've announced to our employees in the Greensboro...

BCE Ups Sales Force As Alliance Changes.
April 12, 2004... In response to its renegotiated deal with Freddie Mac, BCE Emergis here has increased the size of its U.S. sales force in preparation to take a more active role in the marketing and sales of its e-lending platform as it moves closer to a...

Good Times, Bad Times.
April 12, 2004... The trouble with mortgage fraud is that it rears its head not only when times are bad, but when times are good. That's something to think about, and prepare for. Arthur Prieston, principal of California-based Arthur Prieston Group, told...

Homeownership Gap Still Exists.
April 12, 2004... Excerpts of the president's remarks on homeownership at the recent Expo New Mexico in Albuquerque are presented as our Open Forum. One of the great successes of this period of time, a period of time that had a lot of challenges is the fact...

Two Employment Reports Cause Two Different Movements in Rates.
April 12, 2004... It has taken an employment-related report to reverse an earlier employment-related report's impact when it comes to the rate-indicative 10-year Treasury yield. As a result, there recently has been an interesting schism between the release...

HAND Under Duress As Biggest Supporters Leave.
April 12, 2004... Industry insiders had predicted that going forward many of the smaller-size downpayment assistance providers may have to close their doors. However, the Homeownership Alliance of Nonprofit Downpayment Providers, representing the country's top...

Abernathy: National Law Should Cover Federal Banks.
April 12, 2004... Assistant Treasury secretary Wayne Abernathy earlier this month called for two sets of laws to deal with abusive lending practices, one at the national level and the other at the state level. Speaking at the National Home Equity Mortgage...

Education Is Needed To Protect Consumers.
April 12, 2004... Consumer education holds the key to better customers, less regulatory control and greater community involvement, according to panelists at the National Home Equity Mortgage Association's annual conference here earlier this month. Both...

Raising Capital Not an Easy Path to Growth.
April 12, 2004... When should small or medium-sized lenders seek additional capital to grow their companies and step up to the next level? "Only when you absolutely have to," says Scott Reading, president of USGlobal Financial, San Bernardino, Calif. ...

2003 Was Toughest Year in Nearly a Decade for CMBS Performance.
April 12, 2004... The most stressful year for commercial mortgage loans since the early '90s was 2003, according to a Standard & Poor's study of commercial mortgage loans. The rating agency reports that defaults among commercial mortgage loans originated...

OFHEO May Strip Title From Fannie's Chief.
April 12, 2004... The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight is proposing strict corporate governance rules that could force Fannie Mae chairman and chief executive officer Franklin Raines to relinquish one of his positions. The OFHEO proposal...

Wachovia Says Expensive Acquisition Unlikely.
April 12, 2004... Wachovia Corp., parent of Wachovia Bank and HomEq servicing, has indicated to stock analysts that the company is frustrated that its stock is trading at a discount to peers and believes that rumors about a possible acquisition might be behind...

At a Glance: Wachovia.
April 12, 2004... Employees: 86,670 Assets: $401 billion Loans: $166 billion RE loan share: 43.5% Market Cap.: $63 billion Notes: Mkt cap as of 2/27. Real estate loan share of total includes mortgages, commercial real estate, and "other"...

Investment Fund Buys ARIT Stake.
April 12, 2004... The Camas, Wash.-based D3 Family Funds has purchased 1.1 million shares of American Residential Investment Trust from Home Asset Management Corp. for $9.50 per share. On the day before the deal was announced, March 5, American Residential...

Luminent Prices $168M Offering.
April 12, 2004... Luminent Mortgage Capital has priced a public offering of 12 million shares of common stock at $14 per share for a total offering of approximately $168 million. Luminent, based in San Francisco, was formed in 2003 to invest primarily in...

Home Loan Volume Falls to Ten-Month Low in U.K.
April 12, 2004... Total gross lending in the United Kingdom fell in February to its lowest level since last April, according to estimates provided by the Council of Mortgage Lenders here. "At PN20.1 billion [approximately $36.7 billion], gross lending in...

Home Construction Rebounds in Canada.
April 12, 2004... The seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts in Canada rose to 214,100 in February, compared with 195,500 in January, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported. "Starts rebounded nicely in February," said Bob Dugan, chief...

New Regulations Put NY Lenders on Hot Seat.
April 12, 2004... Barbara Kent, director of consumer affairs and financial products at the New York State Banking Department, recently talked to members of the National Association of Professional Mortgage Women about the importance of following new mortgage...

To The Editor.
April 12, 2004... All this talk that RESPA is dead because it gave big lenders too much power to squeeze volume price concessions from the settlement service providers is still happening with our without the passage of a new law. The genie is already out of...

Realtors Claim Ginnie Mae Charges 'Prepayment Penalties'.
April 12, 2004... Ginnie Mae is forcing Federal Housing Administration borrowers to pay "prepayment penalties," according to the National Association of Realtors, and it wants the agency to change its policy. NAR claims that over 425,000 borrowers in fiscal...

Eyeing Legal Issues.
April 12, 2004... Faith Schwartz, senior vice president of industry relations in the Washington office of Option One Mortgage Corp., a subsidiary of H&R Block Inc., is scheduled to sit on a panel discussing legislative efforts at the city and state levels aimed...

Providing a Welcome to Washington.
April 12, 2004... Given that secondary market participants often watch Washington, D.C. officials for their cues in terms of what kind of interest rates or regulatory environment they may face down the road, it is fitting that the Mortgage Bankers Association is...

Del Mar to Reveal Release Dates for Improved DataTrac.
April 12, 2004... Del Mar Database has big plans for the Mortgage Bankers Association National Secondary Market Conference & Expo this year related to its plans to reshape its premier product for a summer 2004 release. Del Mar puts out DataTrac, a loan...

Getting Around: A Guide to Trains and Taxi Cabs.
April 12, 2004... Like most major cities in the United States, our nation's capital is not particularly automobile friendly. Fortunately, there is a subway system that can get you into the heart of the city in minutes. The convention hotel, the Hilton...

Georgetown Villlage: Shop and See History.
April 12, 2004... Would you like to find an alternative to visiting a mall while in shopping in Washington, D.C.? And I am not implying that visiting some large shopping malls in the area are not a worthy experience, but I also would suggest a visit to the...

Dumbarton Oaks Offers Respite from City.
April 12, 2004... Dumbarton Oaks, a Federal-style mansion in Washington's Georgetown neighborhood, is famous to students of history as the setting where world leaders met to lay the groundwork for the United Nations in August 1944. But today Dumbarton Oaks...

DC Restaurants Offer Variety - From Southern Cooking to Vietnamese.
April 12, 2004... Washington area restaurants are a bit like New York's, offering variety in the form of different ethnic cooking as well as traditional seafood and steak joints. In short, it's a case of "you want it, we got it" - from nouveau Southern cooking...

Fitch: Predatory Lending a Hot Topic.
April 12, 2004... There has been more of an emphasis on predatory lending-related issues at some industry conferences of late and that is one of the issues that Mary Kelsch, a senior director with Fitch Ratings' operational risk group, is looking forward to...

Come Early or Stay Late to Find Sports.
April 12, 2004... Looking for a little sports action while in Washington to attend the Mortgage Bankers Association National Secondary Market conference? Well, professional sports activities in town will be a little scarce but nevertheless there are some...

Exploring the Smithsonian's Museums.
April 12, 2004... The Smithsonian Institution is a unique Washington attraction that offers a bounty of choices free of charge, with the exception of special exhibits, through 16 different buildings and parks located either at the center of the city or in...

RBC Eliminating 200 'Low Performers'.
April 12, 2004... The Royal Bank of Canada's U.S. mortgage subsidiary has made plans to eliminate 200 "low performing" loan officer positions and add 400 to 500 new LOs as part of its overall efforts to mitigate origination challenges that hurt the earnings of...

Hud's Proposed Housing Goals.
April 12, 2004... Housing Goals Proposed Housing Goals Current Goals 2005 2006 2007 2008 Low- and Moderate-Income 50% 52% 53% 55% 57% Underserved Areas 31% 38% 39% 39% ...

Castaneda New Chair at Finance Board.
April 12, 2004... President George Bush has designated Alicia R. Castaneda to be the new chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board, which oversees the Federal Home Loan Banks. Ms. Castaneda is a new member of the Finance Board. She was sworn in on Jan. 12....

Publicly-Traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms.
April 12, 2004... B&C Stock Price Index: 271.7 Change: -18.7 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 4/8/2004 Aames (AMSF) 1.11 5.40 3.65 American Business Fin. (ABFI) ...

Inside Track.
April 19, 2004... OPEN FORUM Economy Needs Healthy Banks 4 TECHNOLOGY Dynatek Expands LOS to Include Wholesale Functionality 8 INTERNATIONAL PMI Buys British MI Unit 22 SECONDARY MARKETS Quicken Adding to its Sales Force...

Will FHLBs, Banks Heat Up Secondary?
April 19, 2004... Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could face more competition in their core businesses from the Federal Home Loan Banks and the biggest U.S. banks if certain trends continue. And federal regulators should be aware of these trends that could...

Insiders Continue Dumping Stock.
April 19, 2004... Mortgage insiders continued to unload their holdings of company stock the past few months, perhaps believing that leaner days are ahead for the industry. The heaviest selling is being done by officers and directors at some of the nation's...

Stock Sales/Purchases By Insiders At Selected Mortgage Firms Over The Past Six Months.
April 19, 2004... Mortgage Stock Shares Shares Firm Symbol Sold Purchased(1) Countrywide CFC 882,000 1,000 Washington Mutual WM 447,000 na Hudson City...

New FHFB Chairman Seeks Comity.
April 19, 2004... The new chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board has pledged to restore civility at the agency and to work cooperatively with her fellow board members. Chairing her first board meeting, Alicia Castaneda said she looked forward to...

Commissioner: Study Too Soon.
April 19, 2004... The director of the New Jersey Division of Banking is disputing findings released in a recent study by a University of Virginia finance professor who says mortgage lending to borrowers who can't qualify for prime loans has plummeted in the...

E*Trade Cranking Up.
April 19, 2004... E*Trade, which last summer was cutting mortgage jobs, is now cranking up its third-party lending unit and has hired industry veteran Terry Rowland to head the division. E*Trade, a retail and correspondent funder, also is carefully eyeing...

Average Loan Sizes on the Rise.
April 19, 2004... In some markets home prices have been going through the roof - which means average loan sizes also are heading north. According to figures compiled by National Mortgage News, some residential funders are experiencing noticeable gains in...

Lenders With The Highest Average Loan Size In 4Q/03.
April 19, 2004... (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 First Republic Bank San Francisco, CA 2 Thornburg Mortgage, Inc. Sante Fe, NM 3 Union Bank of California San Diego, CA 4 First Savings...