Are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac getting short changed on the guarantee fees (g-fee) they charge their seller servicers? Some mortgage watchers say a handful of the top 20 lenders are doing a brisk business in what is called "assignment of trade" or AOT. Under an AOT deal, a mega-lender pays servicing-released premiums (SRPs) to small and medium-sized correspondents. The SRPs are so good that the correspondents -- instead of selling directly to the GSEs -- sell both the loan and servicing to the mega-lender, which in turn sells the loans to Fannie and Freddie. What's the big deal then? Several mega-lenders have g-fee deals that reward them for volume. For instance, one top five lender supposedly has a g-fee deal of just 12 basis points with Fannie, whose average g-fee arrangement is 19 basis points or so. Fannie, in theory, makes more money if the small correspondent sells to them directly instead of using a mega-lender's "deal" rate. Some Fannie watchers say the company has done a terrible job of marketing to smaller-to-medium sized lenders. "I think they're starting to realize this and are trying to change things," said one observer...
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Will the Federal Reserve cut rates this week? Who knows but some lenders in the Washington, D.C. metro area are already offering 30-year, fixed-rate conventional mortgage rates at under 6%. A recent check of the local newspaper found 58 firms advertising their rates -- six of which were pitching FRMs at under 6%, one as low as 5.5% ( Mandarin Mortgage). However, Mandarin requires the borrower to pay 3 points. Still, if I was a consumer and I planned staying in my house a while, I think I'd pay three points to lock in a 5.5% mortgage...
Countrywide Credit Industries saw its stock climb to a new a 52-week high on Thursday at $54.10. And this time around it had nothing to do with takeover speculation. The reason for the boost? The refi boom and the perception that the company is diversifying somewhat and stealing market share away from competitors...
The new Quarterly Data Report will be out Aug. 15. The QDR, which ranks the top 100, found that all U.S. lenders produced $1.1 trillion in the first half. Among the top five servicers, just one firm, Bank of America, saw its mortgage receivables decline. BoA saw its servicing volume fall 15%...
It must've been a slow news week. In her Aug. 2 "GSE Report" (a compilation of articles that offers less-than-favorable coverage to the GSEs) Anne Canfield (an FM Watch funder and active supporter) found it noteworthy to quote Executive Intelligence Review, a Lyndon LaRouche publication. The article blames Fannie and Freddie for creating a housing bubble in the U.S. LaRouche, as some of you might remember, is a right-wing cult leader who did five years in a federal penitentiary. Canfield gave the LaRouche publication a half page of coverage...
ALLTEL Information Services has enhanced its Web-based loan origination system, iLoan, to add additional government lending functionality and improve the point-of-sale module...
IN CASE YOU MISSED: Richard Wilkes is stepping down as CEO of IMX...
AND FINALLY: Michael A. Zigrossi has been named senior vice president of lending operations at MortgageIT...
