Paul Muolo

Between foreclosures and paying down their loans through "cash-in" refinancings, the nation's mortgagors are continuing to whittle down their housing debt-and that's bad news for the nation's servicers.

National Mortgage News is still adding up warehouse results for the third quarter, but one thing seems clear: lines of credit are up compared to both 2Q of this year and 3Q 2010. Also, there is a new willingness on the part of firms to disclose their commitment volumes. (We thank you.)

Total Mortgage Services, Milford, Conn., said it has received regulatory approvals to fund residential loans in West Virginia.

Fannie Mae's PR department might contend that the GSE isn't in the business of servicing loans, but everyone in the mortgage business knows that such a statement is, shall we say, a misnomer. The government-controlled secondary market giant—as a technical matter—owns the servicing rights to every loan it guarantees, but it's the GSE seller/servicer that owns the “contract” to process those loans.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week hired Manoj K. Singh as principal examiner for risk, in charge of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Is credit card giant American Express contemplating an entry into residential finance? Such talk was making the rounds the past few weeks, but we're told the inquiries were preliminary.

Bank of America is continuing to lose top retail loan officers and managers to the competition, the latest departure claiming a handful of employees in the Columbia, S.C. area.

PNC Bank is searching for a divisional manager to oversee mortgage operations in parts of the Mid-Atlantic, South and West, according to a job notice provided to National Mortgage News.

Mike Hartman, the sales director of Allonhill for the past two years, has left the due diligence firm to "pursue other opportunities," the company said.

Mortgage companies ramped up hiring in October, adding 1,500 full-time employees to their payrolls - but almost all of the new hires came from mortgage brokerage firms, according to newly released government figures.

PNC Financial Services is taking a look at parts of MetLife Mortgage, according to industry advisors familiar with the situation.

Late this past week several advisors to the mortgage industry were saying that PNC Bank may be taking a close look at some of MetLife's mortgage divisions. Both institutions declined to comment to National Mortgage News. But one unit that PNC won't be buying is MetLife's warehouse group.

A few short years ago outstanding U.S. mortgage debt had Treasury borrowings beat $10 trillion to $9.5 trillion. But not so anymore. Uncle Sam owes $15 trillion on his tab while consumers have whittled down their mortgage debt to a mere $9.2 trillion. (The latter measurement is courtesy of NMN's Quarterly Data Report.)

Over the past week or so Bank of America began telling a select group of its warehouse lending clients that their lines would terminate within 30 to 90 days.

For several months Fannie Mae has insisted that it's not in the servicing business, but a recent 10-Q filing by the government-owned GSE reveals that it agreed to buy $74 billion of MSRs from Bank of America in the third quarter. No purchase price was disclosed.

The Prestwick Mortgage Group, Alexandria, Va., is brokering a $40 million package of Freddie Mac servicing rights for a community bank based in Florida.

This is how a Ponzi scheme collapses: the scammers running the fraud run out of suckers (participants) who stop giving them money. When the cash dries up at the lower (intake) levels there’s no way to pay the people at the top of the investment pyramid.

Fannie Mae acquired $58.4 billion of mortgages from its seller/servicers in October, its best purchase month since January and a sign that low rates are starting to spur new activity in the primary market.

Now that the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loan limit has been whittled down to $625,500 a ton of private sector conduits have entered the market to make it easier for wealthier clients to get a jumbo mortgage. Congress is happy because the "de-risking" of the GSEs has begun.

In a worst case scenario investors in bonds issued by The PMI Group could lose upwards of $737 million because the notes are considered "unsecured" according to court papers issued in the mortgage insurer's bankruptcy filing.