It appears the Government National Mortgage Association has yet to commit any of its thoughts to paper concerning Ginnie Mae "Choice." Moreover, officials at the HUD-controlled unit have yet to say boo (at least publicly) about the proposed Choice program which needs an act of Congress to make it happen. Some factions of the mortgage insurance industry are lobbying hard for Choice as a low payment alternative to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Choice likely won't see the light of day this year, said one lobbyist close to the situation. "But there's always next year," he said...
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It's anyone's guess when the FHLB-Chicago will create an MBS program, but here's an interesting development: The FHLB system said late this past week that it will launch a new $3 billion, 10-year global bond program. Why? Because the system has experienced "strong mortgage program growth." The bond is being issued through the FHLB's global debt program. Settlement is May 20, Monday...
Residential loan volumes continue to boom despite all the talk of a not-so-great U.S. economy. According to National Mortgage News' Quarterly Data Report, residential lenders produced $572 billion in loans during the first quarter -- the second best quarter ever for the industry. Washington Mutual led the pack with $71 billion worth of fundings through three channels: retail, wholesale, and correspondent... Bank of America Mortgage is closing a processing plant in Tucker, Ga. About 190 employees there are at risk of losing their jobs. As you may recall, BOAM president Danny Hellams retired on May 1...
Also gone from the industry is Dan Rich, chief financial officer of Champion Mortgage, a unit of KeyCorp., Cleveland. Dan resigned over the last month or so& In other people news, Lewis S. Ranieri, the father of the mortgage-backed security, has been named a lead director at Computer Associates in Long Island. Last year Mr. Ranieri sold his Texas-based Bank United to WaMu& Radian Guaranty has named Susan Kropp senior vice president of national accounts...
E-Loan, after years of multi-million dollar losses, finally turned a profit in the first quarter -- its first "net profit" ever. The online lender (retail lonely) earned $1.6 million...
Ginnie Mae is thinking about hiring PR firm Ketchum Communications to do, well, actually what we're not sure. But a PR woman from Ketchum called us to see if we're still interested in topics concerning GNMA. We said yes and then asked her why she, and not someone at GNMA, was calling us. GNMA has PR officials on staff. She said Ketchum might be hired by the agency for a special project. We asked her what that project was but she was not at liberty to say. "We haven't been hired yet," she said. In other words, Ketchum, for now, is working for free -- which is good news for taxpayers...
