Loan Think

Some presidential candidates may think you have to be inspiring or charismatic to be dynamic. But charisma won’t keep you in compliance with the boat-load of new regulation coming down the pike. And it won’t increase efficiency in a time of uncertainty. Those who prove to be dynamic in the current mortgage market will do so by relying on trusted data and not hype or archaic methods. They'll use technology to be ready on day one for whatever comes their way.

How do we know when we've hit a bottom in any market -- mortgage or otherwise? The experts tell us that a bottom is usually reached when we have total capitulation. Of course, the word "total" could be open to interpretation...

I was fortunate enough to be invited to ILOG’s DIALOG 2008 Conference about a month ago. I have to say there was a true sharing of ideas. As a business rules management company ILOG services a lot of industries outside of mortgage, but nonetheless all the buzz was about the business impact of service-oriented architecture.

THIS JUST IN: The head of whole loan trading at one Wall Street firm/bank departed this past week. His deputy left in late January. To find out which firm and who, read the Monday edition of National Mortgage News. Don't subscribe? Call: (800) 221-1809...

At a time when many distressed homeowners would like to receive a reassuring message from the government, theykeep hearing on the airwaves that the Bush administration is not going to help "speculators."

I remember watching reruns of Agent 86 Maxwell Smart, wonderfully portrayed by Don Adams, bungle his way through one case of espionage to another. He and Agent 99 would provide great slapstick humor, countless laughs and always manage to save the day even though Smart was clearly anything but. This June Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway will revive both rolls on the big screen. I hope the movie lives up to its TV predecessor.

The Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act is the most important American Indian housinglegislation ever to be passed into law. Its reauthorization by Congress will be a key step in helping tribes getoff the dispiriting Government dole and use their sovereignty to determine their own destiny.

For three months now a source familiar with the situation has been telling us that Carrington Capital Management -- which bought the servicing platform of now-defunct subprime giant New Century Financial Corp. -- has been having (shall we say) some financial challenges. This past week it was reported that Carrington, the brain child of former Salomon Brothers executive Bruce Rose, is trying to persuade investors to lend it $200 million to replace its current bank lines. The obvious question is this: Have his current lenders become "risk adverse"?...

So much for the status quo. We’ve switched it up here at SourceMedia. Things have changed at Mortgage Technology Magazine. The same-old, same-old can be boring after all.

Let's start with the funeral -- no, not the Bear Stearns funeral but we'll get to that in a minute. This past week the family of Roland Arnall laid the former subprime king to rest at the Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Los Angeles. Attending the funeral were politicians (and former politicians) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gray Davis, and Antonio Villaraigosa. A former account executive at Argent Mortgage had this to say: "Some say he was a wolf in sheep's clothing or maybe he just turned a blind eye to all the money that was flowing in -- and made up for it doing deeds for the greater good of mankind. We may never know. But what is known is the influence he made on the political landscape and to the lives of many of his employees. I felt like I was at a political rally with the amount of politicians that came to pay their respects. You could say there wasn't a dry eye in the place -- but it wasn't necessarily for passing of 'The 'Father of Subprime' but for our own futures." The AE told us that he was recently let go by Argent's new owners, Citigroup...