When it was first learned that Fannie Mae would make a $70 million "floor bid" to buy the servicingplatform of the bankrupt Conseco Finance, all the mortgage world gasped. Truth be told, Fannie didn't reallywant to enter the servicing niche. The firm claimed that it was trying to protect its interest in $10 billion worthof bonds backed by manufactured housing loans, bonds that Conseco was servicing. Last week, it was revealed thatFannie wanted a partnership called Berkadia to get control of the servicing platform. Why? Because Berkadia"accepted" Fannie's "servicing protocols." According to one source familiar with the matter,if the contractual servicing fee on the securities is changed (as well it could be), the bond issuer (the firmprotecting Fannie's investment) might "be off the hook" on guaranteeing the securities. In other words,if Fannie feels protected in regard to Conseco because it has bond insurance coverage, that coverage -- at leaston some Conseco MH bonds -- could disappear. This means that Fannie could take a sizeable writedown on the $10billion in MH bonds it owns. How sizeable? Maybe as high as $200 million, says our source. As this weekend columnwent to press on Friday, a Fannie spokeswoman said she couldn't comment on the situation (though the firm may commentnext week)...
This past Monday Fannie and Freddie Mac saw their stocks get clobbered after St. Louis Federal Reservepresident William Poole said -- among other things -- that two should cut their ties to the TreasuryDepartment. Here's a little know fact: Mr. Poole used to work at Fannie Mae many, many years ago...
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati (so far) is the only FHLB to get behind John Korsmo'sidea (we assume its Korsmo's idea) to have the 12 FHLBs register their stock with the Securities and ExchangeCommission. Mr. Korsmo is chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board. This is interesting becauseof all the FHLB presidents invited to a political fund-raiser involving chairman Korsmo, just one showed up: FHLBCincinnati president Charles Thiemann. (Mr. Thiemann retired two weeks ago.) Keep in mind that the vicechairman of the Cincinnati bank, Bob Bennett, is also chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. Bennettis a White House appointee, as is Korsmo. Before getting the FHFB job, Mr. Korsmo held many hats, includingthat of a political consultant. But his big ticket was his gig at Red River Title Services in Fargo, N.D.where he earned north of $205,000 a year...
The top retail lender in 2002 was Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Wells produced $158 billion in home mortgagethrough the retail channel, according to the new annual version of the Quarterly Data Report. WashingtonMutual ranked second in retail with $100 billion...
General Motors, which is trying to sell its commercial mortgage division, saw its share price hit a 10-yearlow in intraday trading on Tuesday. GM's pension fund ended 2002 underfunded by $19.3 billion, due mainly to threeconsecutive years of stock market declines...
Bad news for the overseas commercial market: According to Bloomberg News, Canary Wharf Group Plc, thebuilder of the world's second largest office park, dropped 27% in trading on Wednesday to 168.75p. Office vacanciesmay double by 2005, the company said...
Countrywide affiliate, Countrywide Bank, has opened a bank branch in Dallas...
Lights, camera, action: WaMu, the nation's second larger residential funder, will be running four TV ads duringthe Academy Awards on March 23...
WASHINGTON NEWS: The FHFB and Chicago FHLB insist that the bank's new shared-funding program isnot a mortgage-backed securities program. Maybe so, but some industry wags are calling it a stepping stone to eventualMBS issuance, which means the FHLBs would become (even more) direct competitors of Fannie and Freddie...
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez may run against Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla.,in 2004...
Taking a page from the Fannie Mae play book, America's Community Bankers this past week took out a full-pagead in The Wall Street Journal, explaining its mission to America's business community. The Journal'seditorial board, on a regular basis, beats the stuffing out of Fannie. It hasn't yet started picking on ACB...
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: GHR Systems, which provides loan origination and processing technology to lenders, hashired Paul Lewis as vice president of product management. Mr. Lewis will be in charge of building the firm'spresence in Canada. He joins GHR from Basis100. Wells Fargo Home Mortgage can't seem to keep PR people.Spokesman Jon Firchen left in mid-February. Last year Dan Fraham departed for Bank of America...
