National Mortgage News articles from July 2008

National Mortgage News archives from July 2008

Countrywide Era Ends with BoA Merger: Mozilo Leaves Stamp on Industry.
July 7, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Angelo Mozilo - co-founder, chairman and CEO of Countrywide Home Loans, once a powerhouse in mortgage banking - has left the building. Last week, ending an era, Mr. Mozilo stepped down in the wake of Bank of America's $2.5...

IMB: Senator's Comments Caused Run.
July 7, 2008... PASADENA, CA -- IndyMac Bancorp, which is struggling financially, said it experienced a $100 million run on its deposits over the weekend of June 28-29 after Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., publicly raised questions about its financial viability....

Wachovia Dumps Neg Am.
July 7, 2008... CHARLOTTE, NC -- Wachovia Corp. here, the nation's largest payment-option ARM lender, last week said it would no longer offer the "negative amortization" choice on these controversial loans. In the fourth quarter, Wachovia funded $5.5...

Retail Share Sets Record in 1Q.
July 7, 2008... WASHINGTON -- It's no secret that origination volumes are suffering - but none are suffering more than in the wholesale and correspondent channels. According to exclusive survey figures compiled by National Mortgage News and its affiliate...

Helping Foreclosed Pets.
July 7, 2008... HOUSTON -- The mortgage and foreclosure crises have spread far and wide, both nationally and internationally. Now they have ignited an effort to help pets left behind when their foreclosed owners move out. A mortgage industry veteran is...

CIT Selling B/C Affiliate.
July 7, 2008... NEW YORK -- Lone Star Funds - which already owns one of the nation's largest surviving subprime lenders - last week agreed to buy the nonprime lending division of CIT Group here for $1.5 billion in cash and the assumption of $4.4 billion in...

Top Retail Lenders in 1Q 08.
July 7, 2008... Retail Orig Volume % Market Rk Organization Name 1Q 08 1Q 07 Change Share 1 Wells Fargo & Co. $39,148 $35,658 10% 14.51% 2 Bank of America (1) $38,316 $36,691 4% 14.20% 3 Countrywide...

Remediation Approved for Three MIs.
July 7, 2008... NEW YORK -- Shortly after Freddie Mac approved the remediation plan of three of the private mortgage insurance companies, it notified a fourth that it had to come up with one of its own. The three companies whose plans were approved were...

Murin Approved For GNMA Post.
July 7, 2008... WASHINGTON -- The Senate has confirmed Joseph J. Murin to be the new president of Ginnie Mae at a time when the secondary market agency is having a banner year. The federal agency is on track to guarantee more than $200 billion in...

Risk-Based Pricing Proves Controversial for FHA.
July 7, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Federal Housing Administration leaders must be dreading July 14 - the day they are supposed to implement risk-based pricing for FHA mortgage insurance premiums. The Department of Housing and Urban Development seems determined...

Promotion Spotlight: Sanjiv Das.
July 7, 2008... Citigroup has named Sanjiv Das CEO of its residential lending division. CitiMortgage of O'Fallon, Mo., is the nation's fourth largest originator. He replaces Bill Beckmann who stepped down in June to spend more time with his family. (c)...

Editorial: Helping Out.(Editorial)
July 7, 2008... The government-sponsored enterprises' entrance into the jumbo mortgage market has resulted in an immediate tightening of spreads to conventional mortgages, brokers meeting in Indianapolis heard. Patricia McClung, vice president of offerings...

Open Forum: An American Nightmare.
July 7, 2008... Mr. Preston's remarks at the recent Mortgage Bankers Association Government and Housing Loan Production Conference in Washington are presented as our Open Forum. The Mortgage Bankers Association is one of the most respected organizations...

Looking at Why New Private-Label Issuance Has Not Come Back.
July 7, 2008... In seeking market opportunities in the current environment it may be worth looking at why the new private-label mortgage-backed securities market has not come back. Based on what I heard recently at the Securities Industry Financial Markets...

Vendors Aligning to Capture Online Rate Shoppers.
July 7, 2008... MEQUON, WI -- Realizing that more borrowers are shopping online and more lenders are looking for an end-to-end system that reaches this lead source, Mortgagebot here has become a preferred referral partner with Lake Mary, Fla.-based Harland...

Demand Spikes for Pricing and Rules Automation.
July 7, 2008... CARAMEL, CA -- With the market evolving and both investors and investor guidelines changing frequently, lenders like Blue Adobe Mortgage here are finding that they have to automate pricing and eligibility. In this case Blue Adobe chose...

Go Financial Adopts Paperless Process.
July 7, 2008... HOUSTON -- In an interview with our sister publication, Mortgage Technology magazine, Joe Dahleen, EVP of Lending for newly formed lender Go Financial Solutions, said, "One of the great things about starting a new company is you can do it the...

A New Version For Encompass.
July 7, 2008... INDIANAPOLIS -- Ellie Mae has released version 3.5 of the Standard and Professional Editions of Encompass, its loan origination system. Among the numerous enhancements are upgrades that simplify data entry, increase system performance and make...

Integration Important when Picking a New Vendor.
July 7, 2008... ALISO VEJO, CA -- When Shea Mortgage decided to outsource document services, looking for a system that would integrate smoothly with their current loan origination system, Del Mar DataTrac, and provide security checks for compliance, were top...

Some Signs of Life Observable in Mortgage-Backed Securities.
July 7, 2008... NEW YORK -- While the private-label new origination market for mortgage-backed securities has so far largely failed to revive, resecuritized deals are getting done, a very active whole loan market exists and the government-sponsored enterprise...

AEI, in Contrary View, Says Price Declines Will Remain Small.
July 7, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Despite a record number of foreclosures, housing price declines have been small and will remain so, according to a new paper released here last week by the American Enterprise Institute. Cushioned by such other "fundamental...

Regulators Trying Again on RBC.
July 7, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Federal regulators are taking another stab at updating the risk-based capital rules for large and midsized banks and thrifts that want a more risk-sensitive capital measure but don't want to adopt the more complex Basel II...

CRL Questions IndyMac's Lending Practices.
July 7, 2008... PASADENA, CA -- The Center for Responsible Lending has issued a report titled "IndyMac: What Went Wrong?" which claims the company routinely made loans with little regard for their customers' ability to repay the loans. "Elected officials...

FDIC Celebrates75th Anniversary.
July 7, 2008... WASHINGTON -- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is commemorating its 75th anniversary at a time when bank failures are increasing and many people have forgotten how safe deposits are at FDIC-insured banks and thrifts, even if these...

TransUnion: Delinquencies Are Up 62% and Headed Higher.
July 7, 2008... CHICAGO -- A TransUnion analysis of consumer loan data find that residential home loan delinquencies have risen for five straight quarters, with 3.23% of borrowers being 60 or more days behind on their mortgage payments during the first quarter...

Downey Fires Its President.
July 7, 2008... NEWPORT BEACH, CA -- Downey Financial Corp. here - which has seen its nonperforming assets rise in recent months - said it has "terminated" Frederic R. McGill as president of the holding company and its thrift affiliate, Downey Savings and Loan...

Florida Joins Countrywide Plaintiffs.
July 7, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Countrywide Financial Corp.'s litigation woes are mounting and Bank of America is going to have to deal with lawsuits by the attorneys general of Illinois, California and Florida, which have sued CFC for allegedly engaging in...

Roundup: Europeans Want More Transparency in ABS Market.
July 7, 2008... LONDON -- The European Commission has called for greater transparency in the European asset-backed securities market and Markit has launched a "Euro ABS transparency initiative" to respond. Markit described the initiative as "an...

Roundup: Wachovia CMBS Getting a Second Look.
July 7, 2008... NEW YORK -- Nine classes of Wachovia Bank Commercial Mortgage Trust 2005-C20 have been place on Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings. The affected securities are classes F through H and J through O. The negative rating actions were...

Technology May Aid Recovery.
July 7, 2008... BOSTON -- A new adaptation of existing counterparty risk management technology might help restart the mortgage-backed securities market, according to Joe DosSantos, a senior director of field solutions working out of the Siperian's East Coast...

Wells Expands E-Strategy.
July 7, 2008... MINNEAPOLIS -- As part of its continuing electronic mortgage strategy Wells Fargo Funding has once again expanded the approved vendor list of companies who offer solutions that Wells correspondents can use to electronically deliver e-signed...

Fed May Open Loan Window to GSEs.
July 14, 2008... WASHINGTON -- In an unprecedented move, the Federal Reserve late last week was weighing a plan to open its lending window to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, alleviating perceived liquidity pressures facing the two government-sponsored enterprises,...

Big Loss for Wachovia.
July 14, 2008... CHARLOTTE, NC -- Robert K. Steel, the newly hired chief executive and president of Wachovia Corp. here, is taking over an organization being battered by its acquisition in 2006 of Golden West Financial Corp., Oakland, Calif. In the same...

IndyMac Scales Back Lending.
July 14, 2008... PASADENA, CA -- IndyMac Bancorp Inc. here has shuttered its retail and wholesale forward mortgage businesses, after revealing federal banking regulators consider the company to no longer be "well capitalized." The thrift will lay off more...

Fed to Act On HOEPA.
July 14, 2008... WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve Board is set to approve a final rule today that will ban certain lending and advertising practices that flourished during the subprime mortgage boom. The Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act rule is...

Bryce TakesRadian Helm.
July 14, 2008... PHILADELPHIA -- Radian Guaranty Inc., the mortgage insurance subsidiary of Radian Group Inc. here, has made a number of changes at the top of the organization. Its president, David Applegate, has resigned, but will remain with Radian as a...

Residential Interest-Only Lenders In 1Q 2008.
July 14, 2008... ($ in millions) IO Funded % Market Rk Organization Name in 1Q 2008 in 1Q 2007 Change Share 1 Wells Fargo & Co. $7,834 $21,751 -64% 16.41% 2 CitiMortgage Inc. $6,350 $8,081 -21% 13.30% ...

Foreclosure Rate Still High in June.
July 14, 2008... IRVINE, CA -- Nationwide, 252,363 homeowners received default notices, auction sale notices or saw their homes repossessed by banks during June, up a whopping 53% from June of 2007. But there was some good news as well. Foreclosure filings...

Market Bracing for More Turmoil in Wall Street's 2Q Results.
July 14, 2008... NEW YORK -- Estimates for the next round of earnings results at UBS anticipate that it will see further mortgage-related writedowns but that they will be mitigated by exposure reductions and hedging that will likely leave the company "at or...

Advantus Adds High-Yield Mortgage Fund.
July 14, 2008... ST. PAUL, MN -- Institutional asset manager Advantus Capital Management here has launched a high-yield mortgage investment strategy and named former GMAC-RFC managing director and senior vice president Dean Di Bias as portfolio manager to...

Broker Access to FHA Stalls.
July 14, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Efforts by California congressmen to open the door for more mortgage brokers to market and originate Federal Housing Administration loans appears to be going nowhere due to opposition from lender and consumer groups. Reps....

Editorial: House of Cards.(Editorial)
July 14, 2008... A new book documents the house of financial cards that continues to come tumbling down all around us in the mortgage and real estate industries (IndyMac's distress and massive firings last week are just the latest examples of the cascade of bad...

Open Forum: FHLBanks Step Up to Plate.
July 14, 2008... Mr. Dorfman's speech to the National Association of Home Builders in Orlando, Fla., earlier this year is presented as our Open Forum. In my career I have seen a number of business cycles, and appreciate that in many ways, the current...

Eyeing Issues Raised about Some of the Active MBS Sectors.
July 14, 2008... Some of the few sectors of the mortgage-backed securities market showing life were questioned last week, leaving real estate finance investors to consider whether it was a good time to buy assets cheap or whether there may be more concerns...

Senators Want Tough Appraisal Rules.
July 14, 2008... WASHINGTON -- It is time for the federal banking regulators to "wake up" and revamp their appraisal standards to ensure appraisal independence, according to Senate Banking Committee leaders. Federal regulators along with the banking...

FDIC Urged to Support Covered Bond Financing.
July 14, 2008... WASHINGTON -- The FDIC should follow the European model and help jumpstart a market for U.S. covered bonds by relaxing its proposed mortgage eligibility standards and other restrictions, according to major trade groups. The American...

New Lender Enters Wholesale Fray.
July 14, 2008... LAGUNA HILLS, CA -- Fortes Financial here has opened and is doing business nationwide with five regional wholesale offices, three retail offices and eight reverse mortgage offices, according to Peter J. Levasseur, president and chief executive...

REO Driving Home Prices.
July 14, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Nearly one-third of existing home sales in May involved foreclosure and short sales, which is putting downward pressure on housing prices and propping up sales, according to the National Association of Realtors. Over the past...

Federal Regulators Urge HUD to Scale Back RESPA Reforms.
July 14, 2008... WASHINGTON -- It is bad enough getting sandbagged by industry groups, but now the Department of Housing and Urban Development is being pressed by fellow regulatory agencies to reconsider its Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act proposal. ...

Prudential Teams With Metrocities.
July 14, 2008... Prudential California/Nevada/Texas Realty here has entered into a marketing services agreement with Metrocities Mortgage LLC. The agreement provides homebuyers with in-house loan services at Prudential offices and access to Metrocities'...

Banks May Need More Capital.
July 14, 2008... ARLINGTON, VA -- The financial services industry, from small town banks to the kingpins of Wall Street, has been forced to raise capital and dilute shareholders in response to a sharp increase in nonperforming assets. But if banks were...

Hines REIT Selling More Shares.
July 14, 2008... HOUSTON -- Hines Real Estate Investment Trust here has embarked upon its third public offering, selling new shares through its affiliated dealer-manager, Hines Real Estate Securities, along with select broker dealers and financial advisors. ...

WaMu Converts Preferred Shares.
July 14, 2008... SEATTLE -- Washington Mutual has converted its Series S and Series T contingent convertible perpetual non-cumulative preferred stock into common stock following the approval by shareholders of the two proposals put forth by the company at its...

Zacks Sees More Banking Trouble.
July 14, 2008... CHICAGO -- Analyts at Zacks.com, a unit of Zacks Investment Research here, say that an inability to gauge the level of bad debt on the books of banks is making it difficult for the brokerage analysts who cover these firms to forecast earnings....

REO Surge Hampers Recovery Rate.
July 14, 2008... NEW YORK -- Unprecedented growth of real estate-owned property volume and the costs needed to maintain these assets are hindering recoveries and may increase loss severities upon liquidation, presenting a lofty task ahead for RMBS servicers,...

Roundup: CMSA Wants Increased Transparency in Europe.
July 14, 2008... LONDON -- The Commercial Mortgage Securities Association and eight other trade groups have released 10 initiatives to increase transparency in Europe's securitization markets, at least three of which specifically address mortgage concerns. ...

Welsh HE Lender to Exit Business.
July 14, 2008... CARDIFF, Wales -- Firstplus, a second-lien home-loan business in Wales owned by Barclays PLC, plans to stop making new loans to customers in early August. About 300 staff will be affected by the move and approximately 130 people "will be...

Hyland Software Buys Liberty IMS.
July 14, 2008... CLEVELAND -- Enterprise content management vendor Hyland Software here has acquired competitor Liberty Information Management Systems to expand its market share. The transaction was private, and terms of the agreement were not disclosed....

Roundup: Countrywide Option-ARM Classes Are Downgraded.
July 14, 2008... NEW YORK -- Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the ratings of 435 tranches from 67 payment-option adjustable-rate mortgage transactions issued by Countrywide. Of the downgraded tranches, 174 remain on review for possible further...

People.
July 14, 2008... CALIFORNIA Irvine-Thompson National Properties LLC said that Johnna Howard has joined the company as chief financial officer. Previously, Ms. Howard was senior vice president and controller at IHP Capital Partners since 1998 where she...

Fannie Aims to Stabilize MF.
July 14, 2008... WASHINGTON -- In an effort to meet the increased demand for rental housing after the commercial mortgage-backed securities market downturn, Fannie Mae is working on expanding liquidity, stability and affordability by increasing its...

FHA and GNMA Spinoff?
July 14, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Assistant housing secretary Brian Montgomery believes that the Federal Housing Administration and Government National Mortgage Association should be their own agencies and run like a private sector business. Speaking at a...

House Takes Up GSE Aid.
July 21, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Congress is poised to grant Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac greater financial ties to the U.S. Treasury in an effort to bolster confidence in the two mortgage giants and ensure they can continue their mission of providing liquidity for...

Editorial: Too Big to Fail.(Editorial)
July 21, 2008... The recent actions of the federal government in assuring liquidity and capital for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are totally extraordinary. Nothing quite as remarkable as this has happened in the third of a century this newspaper has been...

IndyMac Reverse Loans in Limbo.
July 21, 2008... PASADENA, CA -- Among the things placed in limbo by the failure and government takeover of IndyMac Bank FSB here is the reverse mortgage business the parent company was planning to build its future around and the sale of the retail mortgage...

Wild Ride for Agencies.
July 21, 2008... NEW YORK -- What had been months of nerve-rattling deterioration in their equity values turned into something that probably felt more like a landslide for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders during the last 10 days. In topsy-turvy...

Wells Fargo Calms Market.
July 21, 2008... SAN FRANCISCO -- In normal times, Wells Fargo's second-quarter earnings report would look like a mixed bag of good and bad news. But these are not normal times. And in today's market, Wells' second-quarter results - which included record...

Fraud Probe For IndyMac.
July 21, 2008... WASHINGTON -- The FBI opened an investigation of IndyMac Bank for possible mortgage fraud shortly before the insolvent Pasadena, Calif., thrift was closed by regulators on July 11, according to news reports. The $32 billion thrift that...

FDIC Allows Banks to Issue Covered Bonds.
July 21, 2008... WASHINGTON -- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. approved a final policy statement last week that should facilitate the issuance of covered bonds by large federally insured banks and thrifts. The policy statement assures investors that...

Freddie Prices $3 Billion of Notes.
July 21, 2008... MCLEAN, VA -- Freddie Mac has priced $3 billion of 3.250% two-year reference notes due July 16, 2010. The issue (CUSIP 3137EABQ1) was priced at 99.793 to yield 3.358%, or 88 basis points more than two-year U.S. Treasury notes. The...

Shareholders Approve Sale of LION.
July 21, 2008... WEST PALM BEACH, FL -- LION Inc. shareholders have approved the sale of substantially all of the assets of LION to Beanstalk Networks d/b/a OpenClose here pursuant to an asset purchase agreement between Beanstalk Networks Acquisition LLC and...

Lenders Fear FHA 'Whiplash'.
July 21, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Now that lenders have implemented the Federal Housing Administration's new risk-based pricing structure, they are anxiously waiting to see if Congress is going to force them to make another expensive change. Buried in a...

Housing Woes Clip JPMorgan.
July 21, 2008... NEW YORK -- JPMorgan Chase took losses on partially mortgage-related writedowns and the Bear Stearns merger during its second quarter, but it ultimately earned $2 billion. The company took $1.1 billion in mortgage-related and leveraged lending...

Open Forum: Confidence in the GSEs.
July 21, 2008... Mr. Paulson's testimony on GSE initiatives before the Senate Banking Committee last week is presented as our Open Forum. As you know, our financial markets have been experiencing turmoil since last August. It will take additional time to...

Freddie/Fannie Concerns Prove Capitalization Is Next Hurdle.
July 21, 2008... Experts have been warning for some time that capitalization issues would be the next hurdle when it come to working through this financial crisis and the issues we have seen at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac prove that to be the case. Fed and...

New Chief at AIG Hints at Overhaul of Mortgage Operations.
July 21, 2008... NEW YORK -- The new chief executive of American International Group, Robert B. Willumstad, promised, "In the coming months, we will conduct a thorough strategic and operational review of AIG's businesses and their performance." Just two...

Council Backs B&C Standards.
July 21, 2008... WASHINGTON -- The White House Council on Financial Literacy is recommending underwriting standards for "responsible" subprime lending in an effort to encourage lenders to make this form of mortgage credit available again in low- and...

Covered Bonds Making Headway in Portugal.
July 21, 2008... NEW YORK -- European-style covered bonds, which have been drawing increased interest in the United States of late, also have been making some headway in Portugal under relatively new legal framework for the instrument there. The Madrid...

Moody's Lowers E-MAC's Grades.
July 21, 2008... NEW YORK -- The Frankfurt, Germany, office of Moody's Investors Service has downgraded two classes of residential mortgage-backed security notes and placed on review for downgrade four classes of RMBS notes issued by four E-MAC issuers. ...

REITS Decline But Beat Market.
July 21, 2008... In June, real estate investment trust profits took a hit significant enough to erode solid gains made by REITs earlier this year, according to the July 2008 National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts report. "REITs finished in...

SBA Lender Closes on Five Commercial RE Loans.
July 21, 2008... ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FL -- Small business commercial lender Mercantile Commercial Capital, which specializes in U.S. Small Business Association 504 loans for small business owners who want to acquire or develop their own facilities, reported it...

Servicers Outsource Loss Mitigation Activity.
July 21, 2008... HOUSTON -- As new legislation springs up on both the state and federal level, collateral protection experts say outsourcing is allowing lenders to be more efficient in their loss mitigation efforts and foreclosure evasion. "We want our...

Moody's Cuts AIG's Strength Rating.
July 21, 2008... NEW YORK -- AIG United Guaranty Corp., until now one of only two mortgage insurance companies which had not been downgraded by one of the rating agencies, has seen its insurer financial strength cut by Moody's. Moody's has downgraded the...

Fed Bans Prepayment Penalties.
July 21, 2008... WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve Board has banned prepayment penalties on subprime adjustable-rate mortgages during the first four years of a loan, effectively discouraging the proliferation of 2/28 and 3/27 ARMs again if there is a revival of...