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Conference Calendar

March 14 - 18
27th Annual Regional Conference of Mortgage Bankers Associations
Trump Taj Mahal Resort
Atlantic City, NJ
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Blog of the Week

Join the Discussion!

Each week we will feature a mortgage blog from one of our writers on various topics of interest. To add your two cents, click on the link below, scroll down to the bottom of the blog, type into the comments box, and click submit.

In his Eye on Washington column, Brian Collins writes about a new bill that Senate Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd has drafted that would require sellers of mortgage-backed securities to retain 10% of the credit risk.

Click here to read the details.

Lead Story

Drawing Up a Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Blueprint Will Be Complex

By Paul Muolo

Paul Muolo

Within the next 90 days the White House is expected to release its blueprint on what to do with the nation's money losing — but much needed — Congressionally chartered mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. If you think the answer to this dilemma is going to be an easy one then I have some AIG bonds I'd like to sell you.

First, let's state what might not seem so obvious: Fannie and Freddie are really giant savings and loan institutions. They hold liabilities and assets. Instead of using deposits they tap the capital money markets using short- and long-term debt. Most of their assets aren't whole loans, but mortgage-securities backed by residential whole loans.

Together, they have $1.6 trillion of on-balance sheet assets and off-balance sheet guarantees of $3.6 trillion for a total exposure of $5.2 trillion. And even though both operate under federal conservatorships (with Treasury pumping money into them to keep their net worth positions north of zero) Uncle Sam has yet — as a technical matter — to put his "full faith and credit" sticker on them.

Read more

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Daily Briefing for November 20, 2009

Hedge Fund Raising $500 Million to Invest in Nonperformers

Tourmalet Advisors, a Connecticut-based hedge fund, is in the process of raising $500 million to invest in nonperforming mortgages, according to an offering circular provided to National Mortgage News. Read more...

Sale of Thornburg Servicing Rights Clears Hurdle

The sale of $11.5 billion in jumbo servicing rights belonging to the bankrupt Thornburg Mortgage of Santa Fe has cleared another hurdle but it's still unclear when bids will be taken. Read more...

HUD-IG Investigating Dozens of Reverse Cases

"Several dozen" of the 1,200 to 1,500 fraud investigations currently underway within the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Inspector General's Office involve home equity conversion mortgages, a group of reverse mortgage specialists meeting in San Diego were told. Read more...

FHA Insuring Higher Quality Loans

Credit scores on FHA single-family loans have risen steadily over the past three years with the average score reaching 689 at the end of September, a 10% improvement from a year ago. Read more...

House OKs Amendment to Reduce Risk Retention Requirement

The House Financial Services Committee has approved an amendment that cuts a 10% risk retention requirement on sales and securitizations of mortgages down to 5%. Read more...

Bank of America Planning "Non-Government" CMBS Deal

Bank of America plans to sell $460 million of mortgage securities backed by commercial real estate loans without relying on a Treasury program to aid lending in that market. Read more...

Misleading Reverse Mortgage Ads Draw Scrutiny

False and misleading advertising was described at the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association's annual conference in San Diego as a "cancer" on the reverse lending business. Read more...

NRMLA Close to Naming Firm Alleged to Be Violating Its Policies

The National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association is in the final stages of "publicly naming" an overly aggressive third-party lead generation company which has consistently violated the group's ethics and standards policies. Read more...

Dodd's Reform Bill on Shaky Ground

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd abruptly abandoned his plan to press ahead with a partisan vote on his regulatory reform bill next month after running into bipartisan opposition. Read more...

Barclays Acquires Crescent Office Properties

Barclays Capital has entered into a joint venture with Goff Capital, Inc., to acquire Crescent Real Estate Equities LP from Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funding II. Read more...

U.K. Lending Could Show Year-to-Year Improvement

The United Kingdom's year-to-year gross mortgage lending could slow down a bit on a monthly basis in coming months but it might start to look a little better on a year-to-year basis. Read more...

Editor's Choice

Technology and The Human Touch Solves HVCC Woes

Technology isn’t the answer in and of itself, at least not when it comes to the Home Valuation Code of Conduct.
Click here to read the details.

Other Voices

This story is from our sister publication, American Banker

Why IBM Took the Plunge Into Mortgage Servicing

Big Blue is said to seek work from the GSEs

By Kate Berry , American Banker

Collection agent. Loan modifier. Property manager.

Such businesses do not jump to mind when one thinks of International Business Machines Corp.

Read more...

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