Servicing

Irwin Mortgage Corp., Columbus, Ind., has announced the selection of Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank as document custodian for its mortgage files.As custodian of the files, U.S. Bank will be responsible for file certification and storage and for compliance with standards set by Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Bank System, Irwin Mortgage said. Eric Knapp, vice president of Irwin Mortgage, said U.S. Bank's Internet reporting capabilities were "a deciding factor" in Irwin's choice of the bank. Irwin Mortgage is a subsidiary of Irwin Union Bank, and its ultimate parent company is Irwin Financial Corp. Irwin Financial can be found on the Web at http://www.irwinfinancial.com, and U.S. Bank can be found at http://www.usbank.com.

A survey of major private-label issuers indicates that they expect the volume of new jumbo residential mortgage-backed securities to fall 10%-20% this year from last year's record high, Moody's Investors Service has reported.The rating agency projects that private-label securitizations will decline less than the overall mortgage market, which it estimates will decrease by 15%-25%. Moody's said $228 billion in jumbo RMBS were originated in 2002. Moody's can be found online at http://www.moodys.com.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago has reported that the Mortgage Partnership Finance program ended last year with $41.7 billion of loans outstanding, a 68% increase from 2001.Noting that the amount of mortgage debt outstanding grew an estimated 11% last year, the Chicago FHLB said the program is gaining market share, and that most of the growth has come from member institutions using the MPF as an outlet for conventional loans, as opposed to government-backed loans. During 2002, $27.9 billion of MPF loans were funded through the participating FHLBanks. As of Dec. 31, 437 FHLBank member commercial banks, thrifts, credit unions, and insurance companies were participating in the MPF program.

The Bond Market Association has reported that it has facilitated the development of a new file format for monthly reporting of payment data for private-label collateralized mortgage obligations and asset-backed securities.The association said the new format addresses "the problem of post-payment adjustments … where DTCC has to revise the payment made to CMO and ABS bondholders after the payment has already gone out." The new format, which is being phased in this year, is "designed to decrease the number of such revisions," the association said. The association can be found online at http://www.bondmarkets.com.

Wells Fargo & Co., San Francisco, has reported record net income of $5.71 billion ($3.32 per share) for 2002, up 11% from $5.15 billion ($2.97 per share) in 2001.For the fourth quarter, net income totaled a record $1.47 billion ($0.86 per share), up 10% from $1.33 billion ($0.77 per share) a year earlier. Wells Fargo's mortgage origination volume totaled $333 billion for the year, which it termed an industry record. "The home finance businesses saw exceptional growth in 2002, with total originations of $333 billion surpassing our 2001 industry record of $202 billion," said Mark Oman, group executive vice president for home and consumer finance. The company's owned servicing portfolio ended the year at $535 billion, up 26%, and its home equity portfolio grew 41% to $36 billion, Mr. Oman said.

Standard & Poor's has reported that rating actions on residential mortgage-backed securities doubled in the fourth quarter compared with those of a year earlier, but most of the news was good, as upgrades exceeded downgrades by 214 to 16."The outstanding rating performance of RMBS securities during 2002 was largely due to record levels of prepayments resulting from unprecedented low mortgage rates in the U.S.," said Ernestine Warner, a director in S&P's structured finance surveillance group. In addition, the strength of the housing market contributed to the upgrades.

Standard & Poor's is giving the cold shoulder to loans that are affected by the new Georgia Fair Lending Act.Beginning Feb. 1, S&P said conforming-balance mortgage loans and manufactured housing loans governed by the Georgia law will not be allowed in S&P-rated structured finance transactions. S&P said the decision was based on the determination "that investors cannot be insulated from the potential liability resulting from violation" of the Georgia law through the credit enhancement or legal structure of the securities. The rating agency can be found online at http://www.standardandpoors.com.

The ratings on three classes from various Conseco Finance Corp.-related transactions issued by Home Improvement Loan Trust and Conseco Finance Home Equity Loan Trust 2000-B have been lowered to D by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.The downgrades were as follows: Home Improvement Loan Trust, series 1994-BI, class B-2, from CCC-minus to D; Home Improvement Loan Trust, series 1994-B, (a single class), from CCC-minus to D; and Conseco Finance Home Equity Loan Trust 2000-B, class BF-2, from CCC-plus to D. S&P said Conseco Finance Corp. did not make any payments under a limited guarantee on the Jan. 15, 2003 distribution date, resulting in principal distribution shortfalls on the two HIL trusts and an interest shortfall on the Conseco Finance HEL trust. Each of the certificates has credit support from a limited guarantee provided by Conseco Finance and from monthly excess spread. S&P can be found online at http://www.standardandpoors.com.

WaMu Capital Corp., a fixed-income institutional broker-dealer and subsidiary of Seattle-based mortgage lending giant Washington Mutual Inc., has reported that it will open a New York sales office in Midtown Manhattan by the end of March.The corporation said it is opening the office to serve the high concentration of clients it has in the region and to complement its offices in Seattle and Los Angeles. Washington Mutual can be found online at http://www.wamu.com.

Household International, Prospect Heights, Ill., has reported net income of $1.6 billion ($3.22 per share) for 2002, down from $1.8 billion ($3.91 per share) in 2001.Net income totaled $338 million ($0.66 per share) in the fourth quarter, down from $533 million ($1.13 per share) a year earlier. Household said the results reflect a $240 million after-tax loss on a previously announced disposition of the assets and deposits of the company's thrift. The company also noted that it incurred a $333 million after-tax nonrecurring charge in connection with its nationwide settlement with state attorneys general and other regulators in the third quarter, which involved making restitution related to its subprime consumer lending businesses. Household can be found online at http://www.household.com.