National Mortgage News articles from January 2002

National Mortgage News archives from January 2002

GreenPoint Leaves MH Business.
January 7, 2002... GreenPoint Financial Corp. here is exiting the manufactured housing lending business just three years after acquiring the second-largest originator of these loans. The company got into this business very strongly just a little over three...

Bill's Delay 'Not Immediate CRE Concern'.
January 7, 2002... The availability of terrorism-related insurance coverage for commercial real estate has been at issue since a bill relating to the matter was held up in Congress. Insurers have made known their intent to exclude terrorism-related coverage...

How 2001's Lessons May Shape 2002's Technology.
January 7, 2002... Last year was a tumultuous one for the mortgage industry - and everyone else. It opened with the thrill of the new millennium still clinging to us, but when it closed, we had a new understanding of the world we live in. We learned that a...

Wells Eyeing Home Equity: Closing Ranks with Top 'A' Paper Players.
January 7, 2002... Wells Fargo Bank is still counting the numbers, but it thinks it may have reached its vaunted goal of amassing $25 billion in home equity receivables by December 31. In time the bank, whose affiliates include Wells Fargo Home Mortgage,...

Inside Track.
January 7, 2002... Securitization Agency MBS Prepayment Update 7 Servicing Criimi Mae's Servicing-Related Strategy 8 Technology Alltel's Advice on Security 16 People 18 Special Report: Title Insurance Title insurance allows mortgage...

Top Commercial Lenders.
January 7, 2002... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Company Location 1 GMAC Comm. Mtg Corp. Horsham, PA 2 Pan Pacific Finacial Corp. Roseville, CA 3 GE Capital Comm. (E) Stamford, CT 4 L.J. Melody & Co. (E) Houston, TX 5...

Mortgage Insurers.
January 7, 2002... (Dollars in Millions) (Ranked by Policies-in-Force at Sept. 30 MI Policies in MI Policies in Force Percent Market MI Firm 9/30/01 9/30/00 Change Share MGIC ...

It's A New Year - With New Rumors About A Countrywide Sale.
January 7, 2002... It's a new year and rumors are flying anew that Countrywide Credit Industries here is either for sale or might be looking for a strategic partner, preferably a foreign bank. Analyst Richard Eckert of Wedbush Morgan, Los Angeles, told NMN...

PMI Ups Its Stake In B&C Servicer.
January 7, 2002... In what may signal a growing interest among mortgage insurers in gaining hands-on loan management expertise, the PMI Group has doubled its ownership stake in Fairbanks Capital Holding Corp., a specialist in servicing nonperforming and...

Loan Limit Increases Becomes Official as the New Year Gets Underway.
January 7, 2002... The Department of Housing and Urban Development has made it official: the Federal Housing Administration is now insuring single-family mortgages of up to $261,609 in high-cost areas and up to $144,336 in places where costs are not out of...

Editorial: Volume for the Asking.
January 7, 2002... Comptroller of the Currency John Hawke has identified a niche of $2.7 billion in mortgages that can be made right now to qualified borrowers. Mr. Hawke's find can be read in the adjacent column on this page. But at the risk of stealing his...

Open Forum: Building Native Communities.
January 7, 2002... In a recent OCC newsletter, Mr. Hawke underscored national bank efforts to meet the financial services needs of Native Americans. Excerpts of his article are presented as our Open Forum. In recent years, Native Americans living on tribal...

When Modeling 2002 on 2001, Its Impact Should Be Put in Perspective.
January 7, 2002... Now that 2001 and Sept. 11 of that year have officially become part of "the past" many finance and real estate experts have been looking for ways to categorize the legacy it has left us with in 2002. Among them are researchers at Nomura...

Letter to the Editor.
January 7, 2002... Dear Editor: In a recent "Open Forum," (Dec. 31) Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) urged HUD Secretary Martinez to look at the value versus cost of title insurance. His suggestion shows his misunderstanding of this important product and the...

Risk-Based Factor in Prepays?
January 7, 2002... With the advent of risk-based pricing, investors in mortgage-backed securities have a new factor to consider when estimating prepayment risk. That's the message that Anand Bhattacharya, executive vice president of Countrywide Securities...

Countrywide Sets New Record in Qtr.
January 7, 2002... Countrywide Credit Industries Inc., stating that it set a "new quarterly record" during its third quarter ending Nov. 30, reported unaudited net earnings of $161 million. This was a 69% increase compared to the same quarter a year previous,...

FleetBoston Hedges In $40 Billion Deal.
January 7, 2002... FleetBoston Financial and Deutsche Bank have converted the servicing hedges FleetBoston used prior to the sale of its mortgage unit into a $40 billion transaction that the two companies have called one of the largest over-the-counter...

PMI Europe Completes Credit Default Swap.
January 7, 2002... The PMI Group Inc.'s European mortgage insurance subsidiary has reported that it has completed a mortgage credit default swap agreement with Commerzbank Securities. As part of the swap arrangement, PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. Ltd. has...

Agency MBS Prepayments Hadn't Yet Subsided in Latest Month's Report.
January 7, 2002... Prepayment rates for agency mortgage-backed securities surged in the latest report, but have not yet peaked, according to the Bear Stearns Prepayment Commentary. Speeds in excess of a constant prepayment rate of 70 CPR were recorded among...

MBS Executives Join TBMA Board.
January 7, 2002... Three Wall Street executives with mortgage-backed securities-related responsibilities have been named to The Bond Market Association's board of directors for 2002. Warren J. Spector, president and co-chief operating officer of The Bear...

First Republic Sells $405 Million in ABS.
January 7, 2002... First Republic Bank here has completed a $405 million sale of asset-backed securities supported by the bank's adjustable-rate residential mortgage loans. The bank said the transaction was its largest ABS deal so far and its third in the...

Criimi Mae Using Servicing-Related Measures to Bolster Its Business.
January 7, 2002... Since emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year, Criimi Mae has taken some steps to strengthen the company's position. The company has recently changed its strategy for its mortgage servicing subsidiary, Criimi Mae Services,...

Dodging the unexpected.
January 7, 2002... Title insurance is most likely the most misunderstood part of the mortgage origination process. Unlike mortgage insurance, whose function is easy to explain to consumers, the benefits of title policies are not as apparent. Most importantly,...

ALTA Revises Policy to Meet Demands.
January 7, 2002... Realizing it had a problem convincing consumers of the reason why title insurance benefits them, the American Land Title Association has developed a new policy with expanded coverages. The industry "has come under some degree of attack on...

First American Unit Creates Partnership.
January 7, 2002... First American Real Estate Information Services, a member of the First American Corp. family of companies, has formed a strategic partnership with Automated Mortgage Solutions LLC to provide its suite of mortgage products and services to...

LandAmerica Taking 4Q Writedown.
January 7, 2002... LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. will be taking charges to earnings that could total as much as $44 million. The company also announced it would repurchase 1.25 million shares of its common stock. The first writedown is for $7.2...

BridgeSpan Title Co. Seeking To Double Business This Year.
January 7, 2002... Since its first customer came on board two years ago, BridgeSpan Title Co., Mountain View, Calif., has grown to handle over 3,000 transactions each month. The company is an online provider of residential title, escrow and closing...

ALTA Presses Its Suit Against Radian.
January 7, 2002... The American Land Title Association is pressing its attack on Radian Guaranty and its alternative title insurance product in the courts and before state insurance regulators. In November, ALTA filed a lawsuit in the Orange County (Calif.)...

Fidelity Executives Predict Title Shakeout.
January 7, 2002... Executives at Fidelity National Financial Inc. predict a major shakeout for the title business in 2002. Donald Cole, chief underwriting counsel for FNF, said, "We anticipate that lenders will turn to title companies like us to function...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
January 7, 2002... In the Dec. 10 issue of NMN, the technology known as BridgeTrack should have been referred to as BridgeSpan in the article "CitiMortgage Offers E-Commerce Tips." We regret the error. Copyright c 2002 Thomson Financial. All Rights Reserved.

Realty Data Forms Alliance and Rolls Out Database.
January 7, 2002... Realty Data Corp., Mineola, N.Y., an aggregator and online provider of title and other real estate-related data, has entered into a partnership with ACS Inc., a business-to-government technology company. The alliance will potentially increase...

Transnation Title Purchases Premier.
January 7, 2002... Transnation Title Insurance Co., a subsidiary of LandAmerica here, has acquired Premier Title Agency Inc., which operates in Navajo County, Ariz. Premier has four branch offices and 14 employees. Its president, Joshua Hall, will join...

ANFI Executives Say A Good Market + Service = Growth.
January 7, 2002... By taking advantage of recent favorable market conditions and stressing customer service, American National Financial Inc., based in Orange, Calif., has placed itself among the top title insurance businesses and continues to focus on new...

Stewart Information Services Brings Its International Efforts to Mexico.
January 7, 2002... Stewart Information Services Corp., Houston, has opened a new subsidiary in Mexico City that is the first licensed title insurance underwriter approved by the government of Mexico. The new company, Stewart Title Guaranty de Mexico S.A. de...

Alltel Exec: Work Together for Security.
January 7, 2002... When it comes to issues of security, Alltel employees have been trained to look for the shark. According to Alltel's executive vice president Rob Lee, the shark logo his company uses to keep employees thinking about security is one step in...

OTX CEO Named to MBA Committee.
January 7, 2002... Ocwen Technology Xchange Inc., a subsidiary of Ocwen Financial Corp., has announced that its president and CEO Arthur D. Ringwald has been named to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's 2002 Board of Directors Technology Steering...

Ellie Mae, BofA Join Forces.
January 7, 2002... Ellie Mae Inc. has formed an alliance with Bank of America that will see the bank's wholesale lending website, Mortgage Network, interfaced with Ellie Mae's ePASS Business Center. The relationship will give users of Calyx, Contour and...

Greatland Corp. and MortgageFlex Partner.
January 7, 2002... Greatland Corp. here, a provider of compliant document and print solutions, has announced the integration of its PowerMerge/XML technology with MortgageFlex Systems' ASP Data Center. The two companies have been working together for nearly...

Forming a Link With GSE's HVE.
January 7, 2002... Property Exchange LLC here has established a direct connection through Applied Technology Solution Integrators Inc. with Freddie Mac's Home Value Explorer, according to Dallas-based ATSI. Home Value Explorer covers more than 2,200 counties...

Dynatek Integrates Instant Geocoder into LOS.
January 7, 2002... Dynatek, a provider of mortgage lending software solutions, has announced the formation of a strategic business partnership with Laguna Hills, Calif.-based QuestSoft, a mortgage software development firm. Under the terms of the agreement,...

People.
January 7, 2002... Mortgage Banking ALABAMA Birmingham- Collateral Mortgage Capital LLC has named Scott Kavel as vice president of senior housing and head of an office in Duluth, Ga. In addition, Catherine A.H. Bergwall, Patricia O'Bannon Muse and...

Strong Home Sales Surprise Economists.
January 7, 2002... Sales of new and existing single-family homes have clearly rebounded after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and 2001 may go down as a record year when the December sales numbers are released later this month. The strength of the November...

Lending Tree Shorts Rise 42%.
January 7, 2002... Speculators increased their "short" positions in Lending Tree Inc., Charlotte, by 42% from mid- November to mid-December, according to figures compiled by Dow Jones & Co. At December 15, 1,240,292 shares had been sold short compared to...

Sarbanes Calls YSP Hearing on Short Notice.
January 7, 2002... On very short notice, Senate Banking Committee chairman Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., has scheduled a hearing on abuses associated with yield spread premiums. The Jan. 8 hearing will focus on the impact of the Department of Housing and Urban...

Freddie Mac Plans $7B Reference Note.
January 7, 2002... Freddie Mac announced plans to launch a new $7 billion, ten-year Reference Note due January 15, 2012. The issue will bring the amount of Freddie Mac's outstanding Reference Notes and Bonds to $202.5 billion. The issue, CUSIP number...

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.
January 7, 2002... (MIEC Index: 157.9 Change: -3.6 (part 1 of 2) 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 1 Alltel (AT) 49.43 68.68 2 Countrywide Credit Industries (CCR) 37.39 52 3 J.P....

Homestore.com Says It Overstated Revenues.
January 7, 2002... Homestore.com here - whose stock has been halted for two weeks - said it overstated its advertising revenue by between $54 million and $95 million during the first nine months of last year. The struggling online real estate information...

RE, Financial Cos. Aid WTC Victims.
January 7, 2002... Trade groups representing financial services firms and real estate agents say that their members have contributed nearly $90 million to assist people who were directly affected by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. And that excludes the...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
January 7, 2002... Fred Busse, managing director of Plural, was misidentified in a photo printed in the December 17th issue. We regret the error. Copyright c 2002 Thomson Financial. All Rights Reserved.

NYU Conference Attendees Look Back on Sept. 11's Effect on CRE.
January 7, 2002... While uncertainty increased for commercial real estate lenders in the post-Sept. 11 environment, there were opportunities as well, according to panelists at a conference on "Capital Markets and Pension Fund Investment in Real Estate,"...

Trade Groups Back YSP Disclosures.
January 14, 2002... Four trade groups representing wholesale lenders are backing a proposal that would require upfront disclosures of a mortgage broker's total compensation as a way to prevent abuses involving yield-spread premiums. The National Association...

FDIC Is Closing Alliance Funding.
January 14, 2002... Alliance Funding here, a subprime wholesaler controlled by the government, was slated to stop taking all new loan applications on Friday of last week. Moreover, according to sources, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will close the...

HOT STAT.
January 14, 2002... JOBS Are Up Employment in the mortgage industry jumped 2.7% in December while the nation's unemployment rate edged up to 5.8%. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that jobs in the mortgage banker/broker sector increased from...

GHR Buys B2B, Looks for More.
January 14, 2002... GHR Systems here, which last week inked a deal to acquire the struggling Ultraprise, Frederick, Md., says it's looking for more deals. "We are actively looking at other businesses," GHR president Cyrus Brinn told National Mortgage News....

Did GSEs Earn $9 Billion?
January 14, 2002... When Fannie Mae releases its earnings today, there likely will be few surprises. But when all the numbers are added up, the mortgage industry might be surprised to discover that Fannie Mae and its chief competitor, Freddie Mac, earned...

Aussie Broker Learns from US.
January 14, 2002... Steve Cockrane, managing director of Australian mortgage broker Lifestyle Mortgage Solutions, Mulgrave, believes there is a lot he can learn about the business from his peers in the United States - and vice versa. That's because there are...

A Tripling for Global MBS.
January 14, 2002... Global mortgage-backed securities underwriting volume totaled $638.36 billion in 2001, nearly triple the $219.52 billion recorded in 2000, according to Thomson Financial Securities Data, a National Mortgage News affiliate. UBS Warburg led...

Fannie mae and Freddie mac.
January 14, 2002... (Dollars in Miliions) (A Record Year for Earnings) Company 2001 Earnings* 2000 Earnings Percent Change Fannie Mae $5,232 $4,448 18% Freddie Mac $3,710 $2,548 ...

Global mortgage-BACKED securities.
January 14, 2002... (UBS Warburg Takes Over Top Spot) (part 1 of 2) 1/1/01-12/31/01 Proceeds Market # of Managers ($Mil) Share ...

Dime Acquisition Makes Washington Mutual Top FHLB Stockholder.
January 14, 2002... Washington Mutual Inc., and its affiliate thrifts are now the largest stockholders in four of the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks and the Seattle-based company is by far the largest shareholder and borrower in the FHLBank System. The completion...

Rehiring for Cut Dime Jobs?
January 14, 2002... Washington Mutual Inc., Seattle, has completed its acquisition of Dime Bancorp Inc. here, parent of the Dime Savings Bank of New York and of North American Mortgage, and promptly announced the reduction of 2,300 jobs. Roughly 1,500 of the...

CMBS Volume Beat Forecasts in 2001.
January 14, 2002... Issuance of commercial mortgage-backed securities touched $70 billion for 2001, a 44% year-over-year increase, and "similar levels" are possible for 2002, according to Standard & Poor's. David Fallick, managing director, CMBS, S&P, said,...

Fannie to Refinance Some Predatory Loans.
January 14, 2002... Fannie Mae is working with local communities and lenders who are trying to help victims of predatory lending get a new start. "This is a locally-based effort," said Fe Morales Marks, vice president for Fannie Mae national community lending...

Bank Offers 1.99% Home Equity Line of Credit.
January 14, 2002... Charter One Financial Inc. has reported that it is offering a 1.99% introductory annual percentage rate on home equity lines of credit that it says is one of the lowest rates in the country. This rate is available for the first four months,...

Editorial: Second Gen.
January 14, 2002... Last summer we identified several companies as being "second generation" mortgage technology companies. A check of how some of these firms have been doing shows some success and the still-rugged terrain they must traverse. We're happy to...

Open Forum: Congress Still Has Work to Do.
January 14, 2002... U.S. Representative, D-N.Y. Rep. LaFalce, ranking Democrat of the House Financial Services Committee, recently assessed the full Committee's year-end accomplishments. His statement is presented as our Open Forum. To date, the Financial...

Freddie Mac Prices Record Ref Note, Fitch Eyes Additional Debt in CMBS.
January 14, 2002... There have been some questions about what the conditions in the bond market might be like this year, given a number of factors, including the fact that the government seems to be making changes that could shift the supply-demand balance of the...

LSI and ATSI Form a Link.
January 14, 2002... A new agreement struck between LSI, a national service provider in the residential collateral assessment and title and closing industries, and Applied Technology Solution Integrators Inc. will make the LSI Indicator product available to ATSI...

Freddie Integrates e-Cognita Software.
January 14, 2002... Freddie Mac will integrate e-Cognita's Lexicon document authoring system into its existing system for its multifamily mortgage transactions. Lexicon is part of e-Cognita's StreamLoaner commercial mortgage transaction management software. ...

LendingTree Releases New Version of Lend-X.
January 14, 2002... LendingTree here has announced the release of a new version of its Lend-X technology. Lend-X is a Web-enabled lending solution that facilitates online lending. The technology powers the LendingTree Exchange that has more than 130 bank and...

German Loan Pools Prove Difficult to Compare.
January 14, 2002... Standard & Poor's office here has reported that it may assign different levels of credit enhancement to German residential mortgage deals backed by similar loan pools because direct comparisons based on global measures such as loan-to-value are...

Impact of Euro Unclear for MBS.
January 14, 2002... With much of Europe making great strides to get its common currency officially established this year, one may wonder whether this will be a factor in how much residential and commercial mortgage securitization the market will see there this...

Bank Stocks Less Risky Than Other Sectors.
January 14, 2002... Only 17% of U.S. common stocks adequately compensate investors for the amount of risk they are taking, according to Weiss Investment Ratings here. But the company says the investors in the banking industry fare better than other investors...

Chase Faces Difficult Business Environment.
January 14, 2002... The future looks bright for J.P. Morgan Chase, but the present could be a bit shaky. That's the conclusion of a trio of analysts at Morgan Stanley, who recently assumed coverage of the company's stock and gave it a "neutral" rating....

Lenders Earn High Grades.
January 14, 2002... Bank Sector: 67% get B- or higher. Biotech Sector: 84% get D+ or lower. Airline Sector: 64% get D+ or lower Source: Weiss Investment Ratings Copyright c 2002 Thomson Financial. All Rights Reserved.

Housing Program for the Elderly Uses Inventive Oversight and Capitalization.
January 14, 2002... Sarah's Circle Inc. is not your regular rental facility for the elderly. It has earned the special recognition of being a national model in affordable housing, due to innovative management and financing. The faith-based nonprofit -...

Program to Rehab Multifamily Units in New York.
January 14, 2002... To rehabilitate approximately 2,200 affordable housing units in 514 multifamily properties in the four boroughs of New York City - Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx - a five-year plan is being initiated in a joint effort by the United...

Advocates Lobby for Lower Manhattan.
January 14, 2002... A New York State official called on the affordable housing community to lobby Congress to assure that New York receives all the promised funds needed for the reconstruction of Lower Manhattan, noting that although indirectly, it will also help...

Casden to Build Affordable Apartments.
January 14, 2002... Casden Properties, a private Real Estate Investment Trust, is forming Casden Development, a multifamily development company with the mission of "manufacturing affordable rental housing in urban locations," with an initial capitalization of $320...

CRE Transactions at a Glance.
January 14, 2002... First Industrial Realty Trust has formed an institutional fund with the Kuwait Finance House, with total capitalization of approximately $300 million, which will buy specified projects developed by First Industrial. Holliday Fenoglio...

Insignia Buys French Real Estate Company.
January 14, 2002... Insignia Financial Group Inc. here has closed the acquisition of French commercial real estate services company Groupe Bourdais, Paris, with a revised payment schedule under which less of the potential total purchase price of approximately...

Red Capital Eyes Multifamily Deals.
January 14, 2002... Red Capital Advisors, a division of Red Capital Group, has raised $50 million from internal sources for its Red Real Estate Fund I, Red Capital Group has reported. The "mezzanine and opportunistic" fund will invest $100 million in commercial...

MF Transactions at a Glance.
January 14, 2002... Dwinn-Shaffer & Co. has funded a 24-month $32 million construction loan for a deluxe condominium property in Chicago's "River West" area. ARCS Commercial Mortgage has closed a $10.6 million mortgage loan for the Morgan at the Park...

Metrociti Seeks Direct Lending Role.
January 14, 2002... Metrociti Mortgage is expanding the focus of its commercial real estate lending operations through its Metrocommercial Capital group. The retail mortgage banker has chosen Gary R. Bechtel to lead the group as first vice president/division...