It hasn't been a pleasant spring for subprime servicing giant Fairbanks Capital. The company is underinvestigation by the Department of Housing and Urban Development for its servicing practices. The agencyis now interviewing former top officers of the company, we're told. Moreover, Fairbanks, which was founded in 1989by California businessman Thomas Bamajian, didn't have a compliance department until the first quarter of2001. A spokeswoman for the company clarified that prior to last year, Fairbanks had employees working on complianceissues, but not under a dedicated department. Two weeks ago, Fairbanks finally hired a chief compliance officerto head the department. The company also recently hired a Washington-based PR firm, Powell Tate, to assistit. A source familiar with the company said, "Fairbanks problems are not over." See the Monday editionof National Mortgage News for more details...
In the fourth quarter, the Lehman Brothers-owned Aurora Loan Services of Colorado was the topAlt-A lender in the U.S., according to the Quarterly Data Report, an affiliate of NMN. ALS funded$3 billion in Alt-A loans during the quarter. Indy Mac of California ranked a close second with $2.67 billion...
Bad news for commercial mortgage bankers: the office vacancy rate rose to 16.2% in the first quarter, the ninthstraight quarter in which vacancies were on the rise. Interestingly, here in the nation's capital, office buildingsare still going up and landlords are feverishly renovating buildings...
Last Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund warned that the longer the war in Iraq drags on, thegreater the risk the United States will slide back into economic recession. What would a recession mean to themortgage industry? Probably a rate cut by the Federal Reserve and greater loan volumes. A recession wouldprobably also damage stocks, though probably not mortgage stocks. Meanwhile, Merrill Lynch's chief U.S.strategist, Richard Bernstein, is still bearish...
Online lender E-Loan will report its first-quarter results on Thursday, April 24, before the market opens...
WASHINGTON NEWS: HUD is placing more resources into investigating violations of the Real Estate SettlementProcedures Act. HUD's acting director of RESPA enforcement, Ivy Jackson, said at a Washington area meetingthe other day, "With additional staff we see ourselves as being more proactive." The agency's RESPA enforcementoffice is investigating 20 cases involving allegations of "sham" affiliated business arrangements thatare used by lenders, Realtors and title companies to pay and receive illegal referral fees...
The Fannie Mae Foundation says it is seeking a "savvy, seasoned managing editor to be entirely responsiblefor the editorial content of Knowledgeplex.org, a comprehensive (1,200+ page), interactive resource forthe affordable housing and community development field."
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Zan Hamilton is leaving Credit Suisse First Boston for California-basedmortgage lender Platinum Capital. Platinum also has hired LesLee Delaney. The Coalition for FairLending and Affordable Lending has signed up a slew of lobbyists to its team, including Cliff Andrews(son of industry lawyer/power broker Wright Andrews), Doyle Bartlett, Jennifer Bendall, Gwen Mellor,Jeff MacKinnon and others...
