Loan volumes have been fairly strong in January and February -- but not for everyone. A vendor working for Household Finance told National Mortgage News recently that Household's volumes during those two months have been weak and the subprime giant is looking for reasons why. Household does not release its production numbers to the public. The company's PR staff -- as usual -- did not return telephone calls about the matter...
Processing Content
Washington Mutual is out of the acquisition market, at least for the time being. WaMu "did a lot fast and now there's a lot to digest -- the servicing part of it is a total nightmare," said one source close to the company...
Overall, mortgage M&A activity is in a lull (because production is still strong) but some think that once volumes drop the M&A race will be on again... WaMu, by the way, plans to open up to 40 new branches in New York and New Jersey. In January it officially took control of Dime Bancorp of New York...
The Senate soon may approve the appointment of Diane Leneghan Tomb as assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Ms. Tomb would be joining HUD from the Fannie Mae Foundation where she serves as senior vice president of communications...
Jim Lake, a public relations specialist at Policy Impact Communications, has left the agency. PIC represents FM Watch, but Lake apparently did not work on the account. Last week a Fannie Mae spokesman said FM Watch is "falling apart" and cited Mr. Lake's departure as partial evidence. FM Watch members say the lobbying group is not falling apart and has as much support as ever from its backers... In late December FM Watch supporter, Anne Canfield -- whose group, Consumer Mortgage Coalition has been generously backing FMW -- donated $5,000 to the New Republican Majority Fund, a GOP political action committee...
Mortgage Technology giant Alltel said it broke a company record recently when its "Mortgage Servicing Package" (MSP) processed nearly 22 million loans in 26 hours...
