THIS JUST IN: Last week's story on "funded indemnifications" sparked e-mails and telephone calls. In case you missed the column, an "FI" occurs when a correspondent buyer requests that a seller set aside money in a reserve account to cover possible future losses. A spokeswoman for Bank of America told me, "In the past, we have in very rare circumstances asked our correspondent partners to set up reserve accounts."
As for the rest of the industry, well, you can read the full story in the Monday paper edition of National Mortgage News. Don't subscribe? Call 800-221-1809...
Meanwhile, requests for rankings on the nation's top lenders and servicers keep coming my way. We have that information-as well as telephone numbers and contact information (as in people)-on the top 400 lenders and servicers in our MortgageStats.com product. "MStats" is the most popular online directory in the business. For more information send an e-mail to
The hedge fund that is exiting the nonperforming (whole) loan market appears to be Marathon Asset Management of New York. Then again, maybe not. Two weeks ago the company denied that it was leaving the NPL whole loan business while confirming that it was selling roughly $90 million in loans out of a servicing affiliate it owns in Phoenix. This past week Sadie Gurley of Marathon declined to discuss the matter. At this point, I think you can assume Marathon is still in. But not Rudy Orman, who on Friday resigned as a vice president of the hedge fund. He has a new job at Residential Credit Solutions...
Meanwhile, it looks like former Countrywide president Stan Kurland is back in the conduit business. PennyMac, the publicly traded mortgage investing REIT he manages, is actively buying loans from smaller lenders for resale to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. One can assume that given Kurland's experience, the jumbo market can't be far behind. But one question begs: If PennyMac turns out to be successful with its conduit model, will it toss the vulture fund business overboard? Have an opinion? Drop me a line or comment at the end of this column. My e-mail is
I'm continuing to hear plenty of complaints about the SAFE Act and how it treats residential loan officers for banks quite differently than LOs working for nonbanks licensed by the states. As one trade group official told me: "We're looking at this and wondering how the heck did it get passed?" Have an opinion? Drop me an e-mail...
THE BIG PICTURE: Are we headed for another refi boom? That's an interesting question. Friday's job numbers looked great-and it had better be. With almost $800 billion in stimulus money-not to mention TARP, the GSE bailouts, HAMP and everything else-job creation should be off like a rocket. Then again, there's the PIIGS to worry about: Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. If the value of their debt continues to slide, investors will continue to buy Treasuries, driving bond yields and mortgage rates down. For a true refi boom to happen, we need stronger job creation. Some economists are urging the White House for more stimulus money-but that's not likely to happen, given our huge deficits. Still, it appears (at least on the surface) that the mortgage market is on the mend. Residential Capital Corp. returned to profitability in the first quarter-as did American International Group and its mortgage insurance division. Then again, Freddie Mac lost a ton of dough in 1Q (thanks in part to new onerous accounting rules). As for Fannie, its earnings could be out next week. Stay tuned...
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: "The general gist of your column that I got is that Fannie/Freddie are (unwittingly) buying S&D (scratch and dent) loans that they themselves had previously kicked back to 'someone.' While that may or may not be true, my experience with most of this Fannie/Freddie S&D is that they are buying loans that fit Fannie/Freddie guidelines (or even GNMA, for FHA/VA loans) but miss the generalized correspondent lender guidelines, getting caught in the overhang of underwriting grids. Hence, they are correspondent S&D, but agency-eligible. That is not Fannie/Freddie S&D, but a willingness to purchase loans that fit their guidelines already that the Big 4 are simply unwilling to buy. There is a secondary market of S&D type buyers who are willing to act as the go-between, as it were, for those mortgage companies unable to deal directly with the GSEs. This is happening more for less-than-12-month-old loans than for seasoned loans, per se." (Note to readers: The writer of this letter did not want his named used but he's a big Washington Capitals fan.)
WASHINGTON NEWS: Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is urging members of the Congressional Black Caucus to withhold their votes on the financial reform bill unless it contains a provision establishing an office of minority assistance within the new Consumer Finance Protection Agency. "If they expect us to vote for it, we've got to be in it, and I'm prepared to do whatever is necessary to make sure we are," Waters told a mortgage industry diversity conference this past week. (Reporting by NMN's Lew Sichelman.)
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: State Financial Network, Broomhall, Pa., a credit union-owned mortgage banking firm, has promoted Michael Magnavita, its chief financial officer, to the position of president and CEO.
DATA STUFF: Not only is the brand new edition of NMN's Annual Data Report available, but we have quarterly production and servicing research dating back to 1998. For more information, drop a line to
SURVEY NOTICE No. 1: Our annual "Top Producer Survey" (a k a LO survey) is at
SURVEY NOTICE No. 2: It's survey time once again for ALL residential and commercial lenders and servicers. Look for our annual survey in your computer mailbox or contact Ms. Todd.
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DATA NOTICE: National Mortgage News has all different data sets available for purchase including rankings and contact lists on the nation's top lenders and servicers. Send your requests for information to
THE LAST WORD: The share price of Fidelity National Information Systems took off like a rocket late this past week after rumors continued to circulate that the mortgage technology giant is in talks with the Blackstone Group LP concerning a buyout.
