A group of lawyers are considering buying a "mortgage - company - in - a - box" system from HomebuildersFinancial Network. So is an apartment building owner because he thinks his tenants would make great referralsto mortgage lenders. (The thinking here is that the tenants one day will want to become homeowners.) Based in Florida,HFN creates turnkey mortgage banking firms for mostly homebuilders. Its majority owner is Fidelity National,the bundled-services giant. But the question begs: lawyers want to become mortgage bankers? Could this be the signof a market top? It's hard to say, but if mortgage bankers are worried about the origination juggernaut slowingdown, based on Friday's news, funders can rest easy. It was on Friday that the Commerce Department announcedthat GDP was an anemic 1.6% in the first quarter, a measure that sparked a rally in the bond market and causedstocks to nosedive. In other words, the residential finance industry should rock 'n' roll through December. (Fidelity,by the way, is contemplating relocating from Irvine, Calif., to Jacksonville, Fla.)...
Since the beginning of the year, the Canadian-owned RBC Mortgage has been trying to unload its West andEast Coast net branch operations. To find out which firm is buying the West Coast network read the Monday editionof National Mortgage News for the exclusive...
According to a recent story in American Banker (which like NMN is owned by Thomson Media),commercial banks that lack mortgage engines have suffered when it comes to earnings. Two banks cited include KeyBank and PNC Bank. Interestingly, a few years back many a commercial bank ditched (sold) their mortgageoperations because they didn't like the profit margins offered by residential finance. Now that business/commerciallending and investment banking revenue has dried up, guess what, those residential finance margins don't look sobad after all. According to NMN, other commercial banks that have jettisoned their first lien 'A' papermortgage units include Bank of New York, Banc One, First Union, Fleet, First Union,Mellon and U.S. Bancorp...
Moody's Investors Service has assigned HomEq Servicing Corp., its highest rating, SQ1. HomEq isa primary servicer of subprime residential mortgage loans. Moody's said its rating is based on HomEq's strong collectionand loss mitigation abilities and above average foreclosure timeline management...
E-Loan's share price almost cracked the $4 mark this past week, which would be a new 52-week high forthe company. Then again, its all-time high is $72...
JMP Securities has downgraded LendingTree to "market perform" from "market outperform"...
Countrywide Financial, whose stock continues to rise nicely, has purchased an 80,000 square foot facilityin Chandler, Ariz. The building, located on West Chandler Boulevard will house 440 employees. The first occupantsof the building are expected to be members of Full Spectrum, Countrywide's subprime unit. In other mortgagecompany-related real estate news, Nexstar, a private label originator that is owned in part by KKR,has leased an additional 80,000 square foot building in the St. Louis area to accommodate its growth in mortgageoutsourcing. In the private label wars, Nexstar competes against Cendant Mortgage, Countrywide and others...
This coming Wednesday Fannie Mae chairman Franklin Raines will speak at a UBS investorconference in New York and then on Thursday he will participate in the 92nd Street Y's "Captains of Industry"forum...
WASHINGTON NEWS: Akin Gump, Barbour Griffith & Rogers, Quinn Gillespie & Associatesand Hogan & Hartson. What do these Washington area law firms have in common? According to one tradegroup official, these members of the bar are lobbying against RESPA reform but also happen to be working for FMWatch. In remarks made before a closed door meeting of examiners of large banks, Federal Financial Analytics'managing partner Karen Shaw Petrou warned against the coziness that can occur between mega-banks and theirexaminers. Mega-banks, of course, dominate the residential finance business, with few exceptions. GSE Subcommitteechairman Rep. Richard Baker soon will hold hearings to explore whether the government does enough to monitorrisks posed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Darryl Hicks, who started his career in mortgage bankingas a cub reporter for National Mortgage News (his nickname in the D.C. bureau was Jimmy Olson),has been named associate director of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association. Darryl is the secondex-NMNer to strike it big recently. The other is Doug Robinson, now with Freddie Mac. Doug published hisfirst book back in the fall, though Freddie officials have begged us not to give him any more publicity...
PEOPLE: CMG Mortgage president Chris George has been named the 2003-04 legislativechairman for the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. He will be installed at the NAMB broker showin Baltimore next month. Former Capitol Hill veteran Joe Ventrone has been hired by the National Associationof Realtors to be its managing director of regulatory and industry relations. And Fannie Mae has promoted twoof its employees who have "Valhalla" credentials, that is, experience in public service. The two areMonica Medina (VP, deputy general counsel for corporate governance) and Jon Seward (VP, deputy generalcounsel for fair lending). Ms. Medina worked for DOJ and the Senate, Mr. Seward for HUD and DOJ. (FM Watch directorMike House likes to say that when people leave public service for Fannie or Freddie they are going to "Valhalla.")
CORRECTIONS: In a recent story in NMN, about 25 mortgage firms being for sale, we forgot to mentionthat Brenda White, a former UBS managing director, now has her own company. It's called B.B. White &Co. LLC and it is located in Short Hills, N.J. BBW is open for business. Also, two weeks ago in WeekendBriefing, we incorrectly said that Fairbanks Capital Corp. did not have a dedicated compliance departmentuntil the first quarter of 2001. Actually, the company did not have a dedicated compliance department until thefirst quarter of 2002.
ALL MORTGAGE BANKERS TAKE NOTE: National Mortgage News is wrapping up its full-year 2002 lending/servicingsurvey. Mortgage funders of all sizes are invited to participate. The information will appear in the MortgageIndustry Directory, which is the "Who's Who" of mortgage banking. If you need a survey e-mail:
