Well, well, well (or maybe it should be Wells, Wells, Wells), it’s been quite a week for the little guy. Citigroup started it all off when National Mortgage News published a story about its "exclusionary list" for correspondents. Then Wells Fargo came along and tossed its broker network into the ocean. Oh, and then Wells finished the week off by confirming that it’s killing most of its Realtor joint ventures (mortgage companies). We understand that the survivors include one in Virginia and at least one in Hawaii. Hawaii? That’s correct. The broker-toss wasn’t totally surprising. The rumor has been out there for 18 months. The NMN website set a record in viewership making the inhouse bean-counters who track that stuff happy. It’s all about eyeballs…
So, why did Wells really kill its wholesale channel? One answer: It’s bumping up against the Basel III maximum on MSRs as core capital—and quite frankly it doesn’t need more loans even though the profits margins are great and the credit quality is the best in history. We should all die and come back to life as Wells Fargo…
Oh, but there’s a back story to the Wells Realtor JV thing. One long-time source who I trust offers up this scenario: HUD made Wells kill those JVs. At one point it had more than 200. By yearend it will have just 14. Apparently someone at HUD doesn’t like the idea one bit of consumers buying a home via a Realtor and then walking three feet to the left in the realty office to get a mortgage. (That’s where the JVs come in.) If the mortgagor immediately picks the Realtors’ mortgage firm it kills the whole concept of comparison shopping. Wells was better than anyone at working with Realtors…
By the way: all this amazing news was published on the NMN site first. For a cheap subscription call 800-221-1809. For cheap ads email
Also, check out the "Field Services" supplement on the NMN website:
Now that I’m done with the commercials, here’s one last thought on Wells and JVs. This comes from a broker I know: “Some agents I know in [one Midwest office] explain that it's a terrible setup because they know the business is going to Wells and they are no longer fans of Wells Fargo. The problem is that doing business with those in-house lenders is sort of pushed on them as the right thing to do. Some of the scoff at it and others go right along with it”…
THIS JUST IN: We understand a title company in California laid off 75 or so earlier in the week. We’re trying to confirm the details. “It was all done on a conference call,” one source said…
As for the David Stevens story, we haven’t weighed in on that one yet, but we’re told that Mortgage Bankers Association members corralled him at a recent "chairman’s conference" and begged him to stay, saying he could do more for the industry at the trade group than working for SunTrust. The strange thing is this: his new boss at SunTrust (or should I say ex-new boss) was there and needless to say, he was not happy. Then MBA cut him a new contract which means the trade group could wind up being the last chapter in his professional mortgage life. But who knows, maybe he’ll go work for the Chris Christie administration in 2016…
WASHINGTON NEWS: The American Securitization Forum wrote a letter to the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors stating that the proposed plan to use eminent domain to seize residential mortgages would be "poor public policy and unconstitutional." (Reporting by Sara Bovat. See the NMN webpage for the full story: www.nationalmortgagenews.com.)
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Ernst & Young named Chuck Sanders as the winner of its 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2012. Sanders is founder and CEO of Urban Lending Solutions, a loss mitigation company. Mark Patterson has resigned as a director of Flagstar. He is a co-founder of MatlinPatterson Global Advisers. Flagstar is a top-ranked wholesaler. Mortgage vendor Equator has appointed Seever Sulaiman as its chief technology officer.
MUST ATTEND MORTGAGE SHOWS: NMN editor Mark Fogarty is chairing SourceMedia's Best Practices in Loss Mitigation show in Dallas late next week. It’s not too late to attend. Visit:
MORTGAGE DATA: The top jumbo lenders in the nation during 1Q were Wells Fargo, Chase, Bank of America, Union Bank and others. For the full ranking see the Alternative Products Quarterly Data Report. The A-QDR also has second lien and IO data as well. For a free sample email:
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LAST WORD: Who would’ve thought that at the All Star break the Mets and Orioles would be contenders? A prediction: Nats versus Rangers in the World Series. Phillies are over.
