Not since the heydays of Salomon Brothers and Lew Ranieri has Wall Street gone so ga-ga over themortgage business. But this time around the Street is focusing not just on securitization, but on production. Casein point: Morgan Stanley is about to make a big announcement on hiring an executive director of mortgagelending. The salary, we are told, is in the "upper six-figure" range. For more details see the Monday,Jan. 13 issue of National Mortgage News...
Some ex-Lehman Brothers executives are considering bidding on all or part of Conseco's mortgageand/or manufactured housing business. Conseco is in bankruptcy...
CIT Group, which has a home equity division, has financial exposure of about $142 million on UnitedAirlines bankruptcy, according to a report put out by Salomon Smith Barney...
Deep Green Bank of Chicago is doing about $1 billion a year in home equity loans -- most of it over theInternet...
Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight director Armando Falcon Jr. will deliver a speechat the Exchequer Club on Wednesday, Jan. 15. We're told some news is going to be made...
Jamie Gorelick is stepping down as vice chair of Fannie Mae. Buried in a press release about herdeparture is the news that she's a member of the Central Intelligence Agency's "national security advisorypanel." She also is a recipient of the "company's" director of Central Intelligence Award...
A recent Morgan Stanley report says there is little political risk for Fannie and Freddie with the newRepublican-controlled Senate. The report says, "The new head of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. RichardShelby, R-Ala., is reported to have told an aide, 'why fix what isn't broken'"...
Mortgage bankers tend to be Republicans, but they may want to ponder President Bush's proposed $670 billionin tax cuts. According to Brookings Institute economist William Gale, a tax cut of that magnitudeover 10 years would raise interest rates by 0.2% in the first year and 0.5% over the long haul...
Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., is expected to serve on the Senate Banking Committee. New FloridaGOP Rep. Kathleen Harris is slated to serve on the House Financial Services Committee...
Countrywide Financial will report fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 24. The lender will host a live, telephonicmanagement discussion of the quarter's results with CEO Angelo Mozilo and COO Stan Kurland...
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Rick A. Smalldon has been named president and chief operating officer of NationalCity Mortgage, Miamisburg, Ohio. David C. Smith has been named president of GMAC Commercial HoldingCapital Corp., Denver, and its subsidiary, GMAC Commercial Holding Capital Markets Corp...
EX-MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Bad news for ex-Fannie president Larry Small and good news for ex-Fannie chairmanJames Johnson. Late last year, philanthropist Catherine B. Reynolds yanked a $38 million donationto the Smithsonian, which Mr. Small heads. A few weeks ago Ms. Reynolds said she would donate $100 millionto the Kennedy Center which Mr. Johnson heads...
NO LONGER WITH US: Clarence Dodge Jr., chairman of Weaver Brothers -- once one of the WashingtonD.C. area's largest privately held mortgage firms -- died of congestive heart failure in late December...
