National Mortgage News articles from March 2004

National Mortgage News archives from March 2004

Inside Track.
March 1, 2004... OPEN FORUM In Favor of State Regulation 4 STREET SMARTS MBS Relatively Sanguine in Face of Federal Reserve Chief's Comments 5 INTERNATIONAL 12% 2004 Jump Seen in Foreign US RE 14 PEOPLE 15 ...

Greenspan Raps Fannie, Freddie on Risk.
March 1, 2004... Proving once again that he's no friend of the GSEs, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan last week implored Congress to curb their growth and even privatize them. But most members of the Senate Banking Committee weren't buying,...

Independent Regulator Coming?
March 1, 2004... Over the next few weeks, the Senate Banking Committee will be working behind closed doors drafting a bill to create a strong regulatory agency to oversee the housing government-sponsored enterprises. The committee has held a series of...

At a Glance: Fannie and Freddie's Market Shares Rise in '03.
March 1, 2004... 2003 Results ($ in billions) Conventional production(e): $3,172 FHA/VA production(e1): $220 Subprime production: $385 Alt A/all other production(e): $140 Total '03...

GSEs Rebut Debt Caps.
March 1, 2004... The chief executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said limiting their growth by placing constraints on their portfolios and curbing their debt issuance would result in higher mortgage rates for consumers. And no, neither GSE thinks going...

B&C Strong, 'A' Swooned in 4Q.
March 1, 2004... In the fourth quarter, the residential production party enjoyed by conventional lenders abruptly ended - but not for firms that make their living in the subprime niche. According to exclusive survey figures compiled by this newspaper,...

Subprime Residential Lending Volume Leaders Q4/03.
March 1, 2004... ($ in Mils) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 Ameriquest Mtg Corp.(E) Orange, CA 2 New Century Fin'l Corp. Irvine, CA 3 Countrywide Fin'l Corp. Calabasas, CA 4 ...

Market Share: 7 of Every 10.
March 1, 2004... Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which last week were criticized by the nation's central banker as being too big to fail, bought seven out of every 10 conventional loans originated last year, according to figures compiled by National Mortgage News....

OFHEO IDs 70 Flawed Accounting Systems at Fannie Mae.
March 1, 2004... The chief regulator of Fannie Mae said the mortgage giant uses more than 70 flawed accounting systems in its financial reporting division, a unit that was responsible for a $1.1 billion accounting mistake back in October. In a Feb. 24...

RESPA Rule an Issue At Jackson Hearing.
March 1, 2004... Alphonso Jackson's bid to become the new secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development may be blocked if the Bush administration continues to press ahead with its Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act rule. Sen. Wayne...

Snow Is 'Hopeful' on GSE Regulation.
March 1, 2004... During a tour of the J.P. Morgan Chase trading floor here last Tuesday U.S. Treasury secretary John W. Snow expressed support for Washington officials' efforts to regulate the residential mortgage industry. "I'm hopeful both the Senate...

Freddie Mac Survey: ARMs Have Evolved.
March 1, 2004... Adjustable-rate mortgage product offerings have evolved to meet lender, borrower and capital market needs, said Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft in a release accompanying the company's 20th adjustable-rate mortgage survey. Hybrid...

Staying the Course.
March 1, 2004... This editor has just passed the 20-year mark in covering the mortgage industry. Since that time involves three decades, four (at least) real estate cycles, two centuries and two millennia, some reflections may be in order. For one thing,...

In Favor of State Regulation.
March 1, 2004... Ms. Taylor recently testified before House Financial Services Subcommittee. Excerpts of her remarks are presented as our Open Forum. From the start, I want to say that, yes, our system of financial regulation is confusing. But remember we...

MBS Relatively Sanguine in Face of Federal Reserve Chief's Comments.
March 1, 2004... It appeared at press time last week that we would be looking back at February as a month in which the mortgage-backed securities market was so characterized by inertia that not even direct comments on it by Federal Reserve chairman Alan...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
March 1, 2004... In the Feb. 23 issue, in a story regarding the sale of GreenPoint Financial, the investment bankers and which firms they represented were transposed. Sandler O'Neill represented North Fork on the sale while GreenPoint was represented by Keefe,...

OCC Shield vs. State Lending Laws Seen as 'Going Too Far'.
March 1, 2004... At a Senate hearing on predatory lending and elderly homeowners, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, didn't like what he was told about new rules that shield national banks and their mortgage subsidiaries from state efforts to protect consumers from...

Trial-Bound Wachovia Lawsuits May Affect the Industry.
March 1, 2004... Wachovia Mortgage, claiming that it is exempt from state regulations, is continuing to make mortgage loans in Michigan and Connecticut despite opposition from licensing authorities in these states. As two lawsuits filed by the subsidiary...

Romney Named Met. Mortgage CRO.
March 1, 2004... There has been a chief restructuring officer named for Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities Co. here. Meanwhile, the company's chairman, chief executive and president of just under a month has stepped down as part of the reorganization...

Pre-Emption Concerns Cloud Sunny View of Two States' Licensing Efforts.
March 1, 2004... Utah and Georgia have both introduced legislative bills that some applaud for proposing to raise residential mortgage licensing standards, but others criticize for adding to the chaos surrounding state vs. national regulation. Utah Senate...

NYC: A Changing of the Guard Seen At Neighborhood Housing Services.
March 1, 2004... Sarah Gerecke has been named the new chief executive officer of Neighborhood Housing Services here following the resignation of Francine Justa, the veteran NHS executive director who stepped down after 18 years of leadership in affordable...

Freddie Has New Multifamily Option.
March 1, 2004... Freddie Mac has introduced a "float-to-fixed-to-float" option for multifamily mortgage originations. This feature will enable borrowers to get higher cash flows from their properties earlier in the life of a mortgage, by taking advantage...

Commercial Real Estate Transactions at a Glance.
March 1, 2004... * American Casino & Entertainment Properties is acquiring two Las Vegas casinos from Carl C. Icahn for $125.9 million. * Column Financial has provided a $55 million, 6.2%, fixed rate mortgage loan for the acquisition of the Airport Plaza...

Another B&C Lender Becoming REIT?
March 1, 2004... Yet another subprime lender has publicly announced it is considering taking on a real estate investment trust business structure. This time it is Aames Financial Corp. here, which said its board of directors is considering converting to a...

AmeriCold Financing Completed.
March 1, 2004... Vornado Realty Trust, Paramus, N.J., and Crescent Real Estate Equities, Fort Worth, Texas, have completed a $254.4 million mortgage financing with Morgan Stanley Mortgage Capital for their AmeriCold Realty Trust venture. AmeriCold is a...

'REITs Stable Despite Negatives'.
March 1, 2004... The rating outlook for U.S. real estate investment trusts and real estate operating companies is stable, Moody's Investors Service reports, despite "continued negative trends" in, most notably, the multifamily and office sectors. While...

Moody's Offers UK RMBS Data.
March 1, 2004... Moody's Investors Service has begun offering data on the historical performance of certain residential mortgage-backed securities deals in the United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland. The data is currently available for all German and Swiss...

12% 2004 Jump Seen in Foreign US RE.
March 1, 2004... Foreign investment in U.S. real estate is expected to increase 11.9% in 2004, with foreign investors targeting 56% of their international allocations for U.S. real estate, according to a survey conducted by the Association of Foreign Investors...

People.
March 1, 2004... CALIFORNIA Los Angeles-KB Home said that Richard Powers has been named president of KB Home Mortgage Co. Mr. Powers brings over 15 years of mortgage banking operational leadership to KB Home Mortgage Co. Most recently, he was president...

Saxon Securitizes $1.1 Billion.
March 1, 2004... A subsidiary of Saxon Capital Inc. here has securitized $1.1 billion in notes backed by nonconforming mortgages through lead manager Merrill Lynch & Co. and co-managers Credit Suisse First Boston, J.P. Morgan Chase and RBS Greenwich Capital....

GSEs and Their Debt Balances: Compared to the U.S. Gov't.
March 1, 2004... ($ in Billions) GSE Name Outstanding Debt Fannie Mae $871.2 Freddie Mac $727.3 FHLB system $718.6 Totals GSE Debt: ...

S&P Rating RMBS With Cleveland Loans.
March 1, 2004... Standard & Poor's has decided to rate structured finance transactions that include Cleveland loans governed by the city's anti-predatory lending ordinance. Based on the its review of the Cleveland Consumer Protection Law, the ratings...

H&R Block Mortgage Unit: Earnings Down.
March 1, 2004... The mortgage operations at H&R Block Inc. here reported pretax earnings of $154.5 million for the company's third fiscal quarter, a decrease of $108 million when compared with the same period in fiscal 2003. The period ended on Jan. 31, 2004....

OFHEO Takes Over Loan Limit Calculations.
March 1, 2004... The chief regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac says the mortgage giants' conforming loan limit for 2004 is $2,300 too high because of an "improper calculation" made by the companies. Moreover, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise...

Publicly-Traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms.
March 1, 2004... B&C Stock Price Index: 272.7 Change: -0.6 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 2/26/2004 Aames (AMSF) 1.11 5.40 3.84 American Business Fin. (ABFI) ...

Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.
March 1, 2004... MIEC Index: 200.9 Change: 0.2 (part 1 of 2) 2/19/04 2/26/04 Wkly 52 wk/lo % Chg Astoria Federal (AF) 40.49 39.60 ...

Two PNC Classes Face Downgrade.
March 1, 2004... Two classes of PNC Mortgage Securities Corp. mortgage pass-through certificates have been downgraded and removed from Rating Watch Negative by Fitch Ratings. Class DB5 of series 2000-8 group 3&4 was downgraded from B to CC, and class IB5...

Greenspan: New Products Are Needed.
March 1, 2004... Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan believes fixed-rate mortgages are an expensive way to finance a home and he challenged the industry to come up with new products. "American consumers might benefit if lenders provided greater...

'Mortgage Companies Are Turning To IBM's iSeries in Order to Grow'.
March 1, 2004... In an environment rich with mergers and acquisitions, many mortgage companies are purchasing IBM's eServer iSeries to facilitate an easier growth cycle when growing their shop. Specifically, this product is an integrated server offering,...

Inside Track.
March 8, 2004... OPEN FORUM Risks at Fannie and Freddie 4 HOME BUILDERS Forecast: Largest Builders Will Hold a 40% Market Share in 10 Years 11 PEOPLE 16 SPECIAL REPORT Preconvention With record attendance...

Principal Residential 'in Play'.
March 8, 2004... Principal Residential Mortgage, Des Moines, the nation's 11th largest residential servicer, is on the auction block, National Mortgage News has learned. And investment banking sources say that at least one other top 15 ranked lender is...

At a Glance: Principal Residential.
March 8, 2004... Production 2003 production: $59,373 Production rank: 15th Servicing Housing receivables: $118,692 # of loans serviced: 958,231 Servicing rank: 11th Info on Owner Parent: Principal Fin'l Grp Primary...

Freddie's Chief Lobbyist Out?
March 8, 2004... Freddie Mac's chief lobbyist, R. Mitch Delk, who has been accused of violating federal campaign finance laws by a consumer advocacy group, is on the verge of leaving the company, industry sources said. Late last week, a Freddie Mac...

Wells: GSEs Limit AH Supply.
March 8, 2004... The nation's largest mortgage banker, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Inc., has slammed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac claiming the risk policies employed by the two government-sponsored enterprises limit the supply of affordable loans. Instead of...

Retail Niche Down Like Others in 4Q.
March 8, 2004... The nation's retail lenders took it on the chin in the fourth quarter as rising interest rates put a crimp on production, in particular refinancings. Every retail lender ranked among the top 25 experienced a production decline in the...

Top Retail Lenders in Q4 2003.
March 8, 2004... (Dollars in Millions) (part 1 of 2) Rk Organization Name Location 1 Wells Fargo Home Mtg San Francisco 2 Washington Mutual Seattle, WA 3 Countrywide Fin'l Corp. Calabasas, CA 4 Chase Home...

Wall St. May Hire Former GSE CEO.
March 8, 2004... Former Freddie Mac chief executive Greg Parseghian - who was forced to resign by regulators, but remains as a consultant to the company - is talking to two New York investment banking firms about employment, industry sources said. Mr....

FTC Calls Proposed Broker Disclosures 'Confusing'.
March 8, 2004... The Department of Housing and Urban Development suffered another blow to its mortgage reform effort when a consumer protection agency reported that its proposed disclosures of mortgage broker compensation are confusing to borrowers. The...

OCC: Banks Should Listen to the States.
March 8, 2004... In response to mounting criticism, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has put national banks on notice that they are expected to resolve consumer complaints when contacted by state officials. Previously, comptroller John Hawke...

New Mexico Act Amended to Address Secondary Market Concerns.
March 8, 2004... New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has signed Senate Bill 228, effective immediately, that repeals Section 7 of the state's Home Loan Protection Act, because it could have imposed assignee liability on manufactured housing home loans. Section 7...

A Missed Opportunity.
March 8, 2004... The rescission of hundreds of millions of dollars of government guarantee authority that could potentially help alleviate the worst housing crisis in the country represents a tragic missed opportunity. The Bush administration's proposed...

Risks at Fannie and Freddie.
March 8, 2004... Mr. Greenspan recently testified before the Senate Banking Committee on the government-sponsored enterprises' role in the U.S. economy. Excerpts of his remarks are presented as our Open Forum. These GSEs - the Federal National Mortgage...

Rates Fairly Stable But Fed Official and Report Seen as Hinting at Slow Rise.
March 8, 2004... The U.S. mortgage-related bond market had remained fairly stable up through press time midday last Thursday, despite a March 2 speech in New York by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan that some interpreted as auguring an increase in rates,...

Fed Chief: FRMs Are Not So Bad After All.
March 8, 2004... Wait a minute, Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan has decided that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages are not so bad after all. Last week, the Fed chairman said that he did not mean to "disparage" the traditional fixed-rate mortgage...

Letters To The Editor.
March 8, 2004... To the editor: We appreciate the opportunity to set the facts straight regarding AI Ready, as your article, "MISMO Supporters Say AI Ready Outdated," (NMN, Feb. 23) has created some amount of confusion. First, contrary to the article's...

FHA to Make Sure Loan Applicants Aren't on Social Security's Death List.
March 8, 2004... Dead people may be able to vote but they will no longer be able to get a Federal Housing Administration loan in few weeks. The FHA began checking for invalid Social Security numbers on mortgage applicants on Jan. 5. In a few weeks, the...

HomeBanc Latest To Eye REIT Status.
March 8, 2004... The parade of mortgage companies looking to become real estate investment trusts is growing. The latest entrant is HomeBanc Mortgage Corp. here. But unlike the predominantly subprime companies that announced they are converting or looking...

Reaching Out to Prospective Immigrant Borrowers.
March 8, 2004... That immigrants to the United States represent the bulwark of the American housing market for the remainder of the decade has been well documented. But the question remains, how do lenders reach out to these potential homebuyers? According...

Forecast: Largest Builders Will Hold a 40% Market Share in 10 Years.
March 8, 2004... The nation's 10 largest homebuilding companies will be erecting four out of every 10 new houses by the end of the decade, the president of Beazer Homes, Atlanta, predicted here late last month at the Midwinter Conference. If Ian McCarthy...

Fannie Donates $1M for Indian Housing.
March 8, 2004... Fannie Mae has jump-started an ambitious plan to house 100,000 American Indian families with a $1 million donation to the National American Indian Housing Council. The agency's vice chairman, Daniel Mudd, presented the money to NAIHC at...

Study Backs Safety of CDFI Loans.
March 8, 2004... Contrary to popular belief, investing in economically disadvantaged communities and lending to low-income people is "as safe, or safer than" lending to wealthier individuals and communities, according to a study that analyzed the 2002...

FDIC: Rates, Home Price Declines Could Hurt B&C and ARM Loans.
March 8, 2004... The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is warning lenders that highly leveraged homeowners with subprime and adjustable-rate mortgages may become stretched too far if interest rates start to rise and local home prices decline. FDIC analysts...

Penn. Gets Flood Aid.
March 8, 2004... Disaster loans are now available for eligible businesses, homeowners and renters, in the southwestern Pennsylvania counties of Fayette, Greene and Washington, affected by severe winds and heavy rain that caused flooding throughout that region...

Countrywide Hires New EVP to Address Market Change.
March 8, 2004... With interest rates still fluctuating but likely to rise, Countrywide Home Loans here positioned itself for the changing market by hiring Eric Spence as executive vice president of its wholesale lending division. His background is working...

People.
March 8, 2004... CALIFORNIA Pasadena-IndyMac Bancorp Inc. has appointed Tom Wagner as senior vice president of sales and marketing for wholesale subprime lending. Mr. Wagner assumes responsibility for all subprime production across the U.S. Mr. Wagner...

New Legal Firm Touts Its Focus on Financial Services.
March 8, 2004... A newly formed law firm here is using its extensive experience in the mortgage world to target its practice on the financial services industry. Buckley Kolar LLP is a 17-lawyer firm in which the lawyers cover a wide range of issues,...

The Year of MISMO And Implementation.
March 8, 2004... This is going to be a year of technology implementation that has essentially been postponed for two or three years now because of the volume of refinance activity, according to general session speaker Douglas Duncan, senior vice president and...

Heard Museum Highlights Cultures of Native Peoples.
March 8, 2004... The Heard Museum in downtown Phoenix is perhaps the foremost institution in the country purely dedicated to showcasing the culture of Native communities in the American Southwest. The museum, housed in a sprawling arts-and-crafts style...

MindBox Demoing New Power Editor for Business Users.
March 8, 2004... MindBox, Greenbrae, Calif., has been looking forward to MBA Tech in Phoenix this year as a good place to show off its new Power Editor that allows business users to configure its newest ARTEnterprise release - without writing code. "Our...

DocuTech Corp. Unveils the Newest Version of its ConformX Product.
March 8, 2004... DocuTech Corp., Idaho Falls, Idaho, will be introducing the newest version of its ConformX closing process solution at the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference and Expo in Phoenix. ConformX was...

Butterflies Take Center Stage.
March 8, 2004... The Desert Botanical Garden, located in Phoenix's Papago Park, offers a glimpse of the flora native to the desert Southwest. And attendees at this year's MBA tech conference will get a chance to see one of the garden's most popular annual...

3T Systems Launches New Version of Mortgage Cadence.
March 8, 2004... Enhanced automation and communication tools will be the themes touted by 3T Systems, Denver, at this year's show as they release version 3.3 of their LOS enterprise solution Mortgage Cadence. 3T started out with the original release of this...

Take Me Out to the Cactus League.
March 8, 2004... The time of year and the Phoenix location of this year's MBA National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference may produce a side effect that will empty out the exhibit hall on the sunny March afternoons the meeting is in town - Cactus League...

A Guide to Cactus League Teams.
March 8, 2004... * Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres Peoria Sports Complex, Peoria * Milwaukee Brewers Maryvale Baseball Park, Maryvale * Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals Surprise Stadium, Surprise * Oakland...

Performance Group Talks Business Strategies at Show.
March 8, 2004... Mortgage market participants weighing the pros and cons of business strategies such as international outsourcing may want to spend some time with executives from The Performance Group, Concord, N.H., at this year's MBA technology conference....

Ancient Civilizations Come to Life at the Pueblo Grande Museum.
March 8, 2004... Step into the past at the Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park where historic Phoenix comes to life. Ancient artifacts, adobe houses, and rare pieces of jewelry tell the tale of the Hohokam people, the prehistoric Native Americans who...

DesertDocs to Show Off its SMART Pak at MBA Tech.
March 8, 2004... When lenders start putting together their budgets for next year, a question on many minds will be how much money, if any, to invest in becoming SMART-Doc compliant. DesertDocs has some good news about that. Attendees at the MBA technology...

Countrywide Welcomes Consolidation.
March 8, 2004... Angelo Mozilo is looking forward to a decline in mortgage originations this year and the mergers, acquisitions and failures that are likely to result. "Consolidation is great for us," the chairman and co-founder of Countrywide Financial...

CitiMortgage to Launch DO 'Link to Lender'.
March 8, 2004... CitiMortgage here announced itself as the first lender to launch Fannie Mae's new Desktop Originator "Link to Lender" feature, which allows brokers to submit loan data directly from DO to the CitiMortgage wholesale website...

Publicly-traded Subprime and Alt-A Related Firms.
March 8, 2004... B&C Stock Price Index: 274.6 Change: 1.9 (part 1 of 2) Company 52 wk/lo 52 wk/hi 3/4/2004 Aames (AMSF) 1.11 5.40 2.83 American Business Fin. (ABFI) 2.96...

Freddie's AU 'Not Ready for Underserved'.
March 8, 2004... While there is little doubt that automated underwriting has had a profound impact on the mortgage business, Freddie Mac's chief operating officer says current systems are ill-equipped to accommodate the horde of minority and immigrant borrowers...

Freddie Mac's Top Officers: What They Earned In '03.
March 8, 2004... Name/Position Salary & Restricted Total Overall Bonus Stock Awards Comp Package William Syron, chr., CEO (1) $4,231 $8,809,819 $8,913,050 ...

FEC Fines Fannie, Cites Freddie Donation.
March 8, 2004... The Federal Election Commission last week fined Fannie Mae, the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee $132,000 for violating federal campaign finance laws. However, Fannie's portion of the fine is...

Mich. Order a 1st Under Licensing Act.
March 8, 2004... Linda Watters, commissioner of the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Services, has issued an order of prohibition, banning Select Mortgage LLC from doing business in the state after the company was found in violation of the Michigan...