When there's blood in the water sharks circulate. A half dozen or so warehouse lenders I know are receiving telephone calls from certain nonbank funders that are extremely nervous about Bank of America's future in warehouse finance. And of course, some warehouse executives aren't waiting for the telephone to ring—instead they're soliciting the low hanging fruit. Meanwhile, there's talk that eventually B of A might shift over what's left of its larger customer base to its Merrill Lynch affiliate. For the full story see the Monday weekly edition of National Mortgage News. Don't subscribe? Call 800-221-1809. A sub to the weekly gets you full premium content access on the NMN website…
And in case you didn't know it, B of A continues to be the largest warehouse provider in the nation. A complete ranking appears in NMN…
One new entrant into the warehouse space is Southwest Bank of Fort Worth, Texas. Its top executive handling the business is David Frase. More on them soon…
We haven't heard much out of PennyMac lately. It was PennyMac which back in June hired B of A's warehouse chief Paul Szymanski to run its new division. But is PennyMac actually cutting new lines and signing up customers? We assume that it is…
The future of the mortgage insurance industry is looking a bit dicey. Or is it? In a recent speech FHFA chief Ed DeMarco noted that MI companies are definitely still needed, saying there could be an expanded role for these firms in the future. It appears UGI and Radian are aggressively courting new customers, as for the others…
Essent, the somewhat new MI owned (in part) by Goldman Sachs, has been very quiet of late, and refuses to provide any of its volumes to the trade press. At least one other new MI (working name: MAC) is in the process of forming and we understand that private equity firms are carefully eyeing the sector. But these PE investors are only interested in “new” books of business and not legacy problems. But, of course…
Platinum Home Mortgage recently launched a new correspondent program for lenders looking to fund FHA 203(k) loans—both standard and streamlined…
We understand that Kinecta Federal Credit Union of California is actively seeking out new loan brokerage firms to work with. One broker we know who applied to Kinecta said the CU is “very careful about who they bring onboard,” adding that “they check your credit and aim to weed out the bad ones”…
MORTGAGE FUTURE No. 1: What does the future hold for mortgage bankers? Who knows, but if you need something to do this weekend check out the future of “green” housing at the 2011 Solar Decathlon at West Potomac Park in Washington. Roughly 20 colleges built green homes that use little or no energy—houses that supposedly can withstand a hurricane…
MORTGAGE FUTURE No. 2: The Mortgage Bankers Association holds its annual convention in Chicago in nine days. If you haven't signed up to attend you may want to rethink that. Why? Because the future of the industry—as I've noted before—is up for grabs, and it appears the big banks won't be dictating terms the way they used to…
WASHINGTON NEWS: On Friday NMN's Brian Collins reported on our website that the HUD inspector general wants the Federal Housing Administration to ban corporate officers from the FHA program if they have left a company that has not met its obligations to indemnify the government for delinquent loans. To see the rest of the story visit
DATA STUFF: According to just released figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report, loan brokers accounted for 7.9% of all home mortgages originated in 2Q, compared to an all-time low of 6.8% in the first quarter. Is this the start of a trend? For the numbers and a ranking of top wholesalers and correspondents see the new 2Q edition of the QDR. For a free sample send a note to
HE'S BACK: Lewis Ranieri is buying a stake in Deutsche Bank's multifamily lending division. Actually, Ranieri has never really left the industry. And if you don't know who Lew Ranieri is, you shouldn't be reading this website…
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Carrington Mortgage hired Rick Sharga as executive vice president in charge of marketing. Radian recently brought on eight new sales reps including Christine Brown, Katherina DiMartino, Rona Draper and five others.
IMPORTANT DATA STUFF: MortgageStats.com is alive and well. This exclusive data website soon will be updated with new HMDA information. MortgageStats boasts the nation's top 8,000 lenders and 400 servicers, including hard volume numbers and contact information. It also includes exclusive monthly analysis from me. (You can't get this information anywhere else.) For more information drop an email to
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THE LAST WORD: If you're going to Chicago, wear machine guns in your hair.
