Bill Starkey Sr. of AccuBanc fame is back. Sources say Mr. Starkey -- with assistance from GMAC-RFC-- is the buyer of Matrix Bancorp's wholesale division. (In a recent press release, Matrix said it had abuyer for the unit, but declined to name the firm.) A few years back, Mr. Starkey sold AccuBanc to NationalCity and "retired." Sources say the money he made on AccuBanc was burning a hole in his pocket andhe couldn't sit still. (See National Mortgage News on Monday for full details)...
Another well-known industry veteran, Bill Dallas, is not coming back into the industry despite rumorsto the contrary (at least not yet). Mr. Dallas, who serves as chairman "emeritus" of First Franklin,is busy getting a new sports-bar chain, Fox Sports Group, off the ground. "It serves upscale casualfood and caters to the 18- to 40-year-old segment," he told us. A Fox Sports Bar (Fox Network is apartner) is open for business in Scottsdale, Ariz., with one in Irvine, Calif. near completion. A Seattle locationalso is in the works...
Business is booming at Wilshire Financial in Portland, Ore. "Business is great," Wilshire chiefJay Memmott said recently. Wilshire is the No. 8 ranked subprime subservicer in the U.S. In the fourth quarter,according to the Quarterly Data Report, Wilshire had the highest growth rate among all specialty servicers/subservicers...
Former baseball great Jim Palmer is back in the mortgage business, well sort of. Jim has signed up withAd Pros in Miami to offer his services to mortgage lenders who need a pitchman for their ads. Palmer wasthe pitch man for The Money Store, that is, after the subprime lender pushed aside Phil "The Scooter"Rizzuto...
We hear that Countrywide Home Loans is taking a close look at the reverse mortgage business...
Foreign investors acquired almost half of the $3 billion in new five-year reference notes issued by FreddieMac last Wednesday...
As part of a new marketing campaign geared toward mortgage professionals, Bank of America is giving awaya new MINI Cooper car. See National Mortgage News' Grapevine website for details...
NHEMA has hired author Bernard Goldberg to speak at its upcoming conference in Palm Desert, Calif.Mr. Goldberg is the author of "Bias" -- a nonfiction (I assume) book on how the media (allegedly,I might add) distort the news (no way). NHEMA says his insights "about the liberal bias in the media willhelp us better understand the public relations environment in which we do business." I will not be attendingNHEMA because I will be at the annual convention of the National Association of Media Liberals and News Distorters...
WASHINGTON NEWS: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, mortgage jobs hit an all-time highof 420,000 full-time positions in February...
The Mortgage Bankers Association will hold its national housing summit on Monday at the Ronald ReaganInternational Trade Center...
Also on Monday: The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight will hold a symposium on home pricesand the U.S. economy...
America's Community Bankers will hold its annual government affairs conference in Washington on March11-12. Speakers at the ACB meeting include: Treasury secretary John Snow, HUD secretary MelMartinez, House majority leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, Senate Banking Committee chairman RichardShelby R-Ala., Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., OTS director James Gilleran and FederalHousing Finance Board chairman John Korsmo, among others. (Mr. Korsmo's speech is NOT entitled "HowNot to Lend Your Name to a Political Fund-raiser.")
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Remember Mark Filler, formerly of Prism Financial, out of Chicago? Herecently joined fast growing mortgage banker American Home Mortgage in Melville, N.Y. Radian haspromoted Sheree Gilbert to vice president/sales manager in charge of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. LaureateCapital has named R. Thomas Gracey executive vice president in charge of loan operations.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Goldman Sachs recently dropped coverage of about 50 companies, includingWashington Mutual and Fannie Mae. Goldman dropped coverage because it booted six analysts as partof a "reorganization" -- in other words, they made too much money and didn't bring in enough revenueto Goldman...
