In the second-half of last year Fannie Mae spent $3.57 million on lobbying, according to records kept with the Secretary of the Senate's office. In the first-half Fannie spent $3 million, bringing its full-year total to $6.57 million. Two years ago Fannie spent about $6 million in lobbying. Fannie Mae did its own analysis of the lobbying cost of its archenemy, FM Watch, finding that the group spent $2.8 million in 2001. Fannie Mae lobbyists work on a wide variety of issues while FM Watch works on just one issue: battling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...
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FM Watch's key financial backers include J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., GE Mortgage Insurance, Wells Fargo , AIG, and Household...
Rumors were circulating last month that JPM might bolt the group, but sources say that the bank/investment bank has no such intentions...
Late this past week some mortgage market participants were using the word "arrogance" (and other phrases not fit for a family newspaper) to describe Fannie Mae's recent decision to call, early, $1.5 billion in mortgage-backed securities. The move cost MBS investors at least $100 million. Others pointed out that Fannie Mae was well within its legal right to call the bonds and that experienced fixed-income investors should have known better. But as one senior mortgage manager put it: "In the end Fannie Mae decided to stick it to the investor"
American Enterprise Institute fellow Peter J. Wallison, who has made a new career for himself by bashing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is ready to do it again. Mark your calendars: AEI will hold a forum on Tuesday April 23 in Washington to discuss a new book that it is published by Tom Stanton of John Hopkins University. Besides Stanton, panelists will include Freddie Mac's Robert Van Order, OFHEO's Alfred Pollard, and Sally Anne Payton of the University of Michigan's law school...
Talking of Fannie and Freddie, according to the Washington Business Journal, the two ranked first and second, respectively, in terms of philanthropic donations in the Washington D.C. metro area. In 2001 Fannie donated $27.1 million locally, Freddie $13.8 million...
In March National City Mortgage, Cleveland, busted through the $100 billion mark in residential receivables. It now services about 865,000 in loans...
The privately-held WMC Mortgage, Woodland Hills, Calif., saw its subprime loan production climb above the $250 million level in March. A few years back WMC was owned by lumber giant Weyerhaeuser...
In case you missed it: Paul Reid, former executive vice president of the Mortgage Bankers Association received a $1 million buyout when he was forced to leave the trade group back in June of 2000
If you thought buying an investment property in the Hamptons (Long Island) would be less risky than the stock market think again. Realtors were predicting that the September 11 terrorist attacks would spur New Yorkers to stay home this summer which means the Hamptons, in theory, should be hot, rental-wise. But according to one report, the number of homes rented for the summer are half of what they were a year ago. And each one of these homes has, probably, an underlying mortgage...
