Loan Think

Connie Bruck, who penned one of the best books ever written about junk bond king Michael Milken ('Predator's Ball') is working on a story for The New Yorker about Countrywide Home Loans founder Angelo Mozilo. The article is supposed to hit the newsstands next week but a researcher at the magazine contacted National Mortgage News about a few fact-checking items. It appears that Ms. Bruck may have some of her numbers wrong as to when Countrywide became the nation's largest residential lender. Then again, that's a tricky one to answer. Readers of NMN might recall that CFC dominated the residential servicing and origination market for many years until earlier in this decade when Wells Fargo and Washington Mutual (now defunct) both went on a bank/non-bank buying spree, pushing Countrywide down in the ranks. Eventually, though, CFC became number one again -- thanks to its aggressive use of loan brokers and correspondents and its ties to Fannie Mae. Mr. Mozilo was recently sued (along with two other former CFC executives) by the Securities and Exchange Commission which accused him of insider trading and civil fraud. Research being conducted for the paperback version of 'Chain of Blame, How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis' reveals that former CFC president Stanford Kurland tried to steer Countrywide away from high LTV subprime lending but Mr. Kurland lost the battle and eventually left the company…

For those looking for hard numbers about the importance of social media in a business' marketing plan, one needs merely to look at a report from Experian Marketing Services, Schaumburg, Ill.

Bank of America's stock may triple over the next few years? So says banking analyst Richard Bove. He also says BoA's purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co. and Countrywide Financial Corp. were "good for the business." Former CFC founder Angelo Mozilo -- now a defendant in a Securities and Exchange Commission civil suit concerning his former company -- has maintained that BoA bought his firm at a bargain basement price. Of course, CFC's subprime portfolio (now the property of BoA) has delinquencies north of 30% and its payment option ARM holdings are exploding left and right. There's no doubt that BoA's ability to fund mortgages has improved (thanks to CFC) but will it be able to compete with Wells Fargo? Both these mortgage giants continue to use three channels to fund mortgages: retail, wholesale, and correspondent, according to the Quarterly Data Report…

So long to prepayment penalties on newly written mortgages? Well, not so fast but Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, has introduced legislation to amend the Truth in Lending Act that would do just that. The bill was referred to the House a few days ago but has gotten little notice in the financial press. (Chances are the bill, H.R. 2794 is going nowhere but you never know.) In years past Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) has suffered at the hands of abusive lenders, in particular mortgages made by the now defunct Ameriquest of Irvine, Calif. Meanwhile, the Mortgage Bankers Association has lost another lobbyist. For the full story see the National Mortgage News website later today for the full story…

Are you using credit repair services to assist your clients? Is it working?

Now that all the weak-stomached wholesalers - Chase, GMAC and HSBC we're talking about you - have exited the niche, blood dripping from their eyes, foam oozing from their mouths, it appears the industry has a new wholesale king: Provident Funding Associates of Burlingame, Calif. According to the brand-new edition of National Mortgage News' Quarterly Data Report, Provident out table-funded Wells Fargo in the first quarter, $10.69 billion to $10.34 billion. All totaled, 43 wholesalers are still alive and kicking, according to the QDR. For the complete ranking you can request the QDR by e-mailing Deartra.Todd@SourceMedia.com. Also, the new Alternative Products QDR is out - complete with rankings on the top jumbo and second lien lenders and servicers...

Has the sale of non-performing whole loans ground to a halt? It all depends on who you ask. Kondaur Capital chief Jon Daurio told National Mortgage News recently that "We're in a bit of a trough" but said "we're looking at several thousand loans right now." He noted that, "No billion-dollar trades are taking place." Recently H&R Block tried to sell a roughly $240 million portfolio of non-performing subprime loans but didn't like the price. One NPL investor who's based in the Midwest said some sellers of NPLs shop portfolios, already have a winning bidder selected but hold an auction "just so they can say they shopped it." He added: "there's a lot of funny business that goes on in that market." See the Monday edition of NMN for a full feature on the state of the NPL market and licensing requirements...

Ever wonder why buyers choose one loan officer over the other? It's one of those things that used to keep me up at night until I finally discovered the answers. So in the next few articles I want to share with you what I found and how you can use it to immediately increase your commissions and decrease your marketing expenses.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury is just shy of 4% which doesn't bode well for mortgage rates. The Mortgage Bankers Association said application volume fell last week. Meanwhile, a new report from Barclays Bank sees a link between bank TARP repayments and rising rates: " There is no set timeline for [TARP] repayment, but we expect the banks are eager to move quickly -- perhaps as soon as quarter-end. Although the timing is a bit uncertain, we expect TARP repayments will bias the effective fed funds rate higher with a smaller upward effect on general collateral repo rates." As for MBA, it appears the trade group is having some luck renting out the empty office space at its (somewhat) new headquarters in downtown Washington. New leases have been signed (or are about to) for space and according to trade group president John Courson "the last 60 days there's been a real pick up in interest"…

CALIFORNIA REAL ESTATE AGENT CONVICTED OF MORTGAGE FRAUD