This past week National Mortgage News broke an interesting story about Fannie Mae installing loan caps on "new" sellers/servicers. There’s more to the story, for sure, but the most important thing for mortgage bankers is the worry that the GSEs might be ushering in a "score card" rating on all their customers tied to net worth, loan quality and more. As M&A consultant Joe Garrett pointed out in a note to his clients recently, there’s nothing wrong with all this–it’s just a form of risk management. Indeed, but one veteran mortgage executive I interviewed about the topic worries that just as nonbanks and midsized banks are poised to gain, grow and increase market share (at the expense of the megabanks) this comes along. Anyway, we’ll be following this story in the weeks ahead. A larger version will appear in the Monday paper edition of NMN. To subscribe, call 800-221-1809…
I’ll also be putting out updates on my Twitter feed. Just visit Twitter and plug in my name…
By the way, Freddie Mac is working on a somewhat similar policy, we’re told…
A new warehouse lending company appeared on the scene recently—boasting commitments of $1 billion. It’s called Fortis Capital. The sales contact listed on its website is Mike McDonald (hopefully not the former Doobie Brothers member). Anyway, I called Mike to get the skinny on the firm since our readers love hearing about new warehouse providers. He didn’t return three telephone calls, but then I received an email from Jack Conner who described himself as the firm’s senior director of executive operations. Jack left no phone number. Anyway, he promised to call me on Monday because late this past week he was unavailable (so says the email). Michele Perrin, who acts as a warehouse broker, said she never heard of Fortis until recently. When she got wind of the firm Perrin visited its website. She told me she was a bit spooked because it reminded her of a website by another provider called eWarehouseOne. Now, this could be a simple mistake of similar looking websites. And there’s nothing wrong whatsoever with looking similar. (Think of the Beatles and Herman’s Hermits.) It happens. But stay tuned…
In case you missed it: Oct. 23 is the bid date on Residential Capital Corp.’s $360 billion MSR portfolio. Bank of America is in the market with a $14 billion package. Both stories appeared on the NMN website this week:
MORTGAGE DATA: NMN recently published the 2Q edition of its exclusive Quarterly Data Report product. It includes the nation’s top 100 lenders and servicers and much more including wholesalers, correspondents and retailers. To order email
DATA SNIPPET: The nation’s second largest wholesale lender in 2Q was Provident Funding with $5.3 billion table-funded through brokers. (We all know who number one is, right? Here’s a hint: the name rhymes with Bells Largo.)
UNDERWRITING NOTES: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently made several recent changes to their underwriting guidelines, potentially expanding the customer base on refi products, including the HARP initiative. The underwriting changes include relief from income verification and document requirements under Freddie’s Relief Refinance program and Fannie’s Refi Plus program, which encompass
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: National Mortgage Insurance, a new MI firm based in Emeryville, Calif., has hired Domenic Melillo as managing director for the company’s Southeast region. Carrington Mortgage Services, Santa Ana, Calif., has hired Mark Allanach as regional vice president of mortgage lending.
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KEY INDUSTRY MORTGAGE SHOWS: In October NMN will hold its annual technology awards show. It’s being put together my NMN tech editor Austin Kilgore. For more information visit
As I noted earlier, I'm
FINAL WORD: The Nats and Orioles in the World Series. You can take that one to Vegas.
