In February, Jeffrey Todd Hood applied for an AE job with Amerifunding, a Westminster,Colo.-based loan broker. According to a classified ad in the Denver Post, the job paid between $100,000and $120,000 a year. Sounds good, right? Not really. When Mr. Hood applied for the position, Amerifunding requestedthat he allow the firm to copy his driver's license and W-2 forms. Shortly after that he received a telephone callfrom a Flagstar employee asking about his purchase of a $529,000 home in Aurora. (Flagstar was table-fundingAmerifunding.) There was just one problem though -- Mr. Hood didn't purchase a home in Aurora or apply for a mortgage.According to court documents, it appears that Amerifunding was using his personal financial information as partof an elaborate "no-doc" loan scam still under investigation by the FBI in Denver. Indictments have alreadybeen handed up in the case. For the full story see Monday's National Mortgage News. Moral of thislesson: AEs should be careful about what type of financial information they give to prospective employers...
The battle between rival LOS software vendors is heating up with the No. 1-ranked Caylxsuing Ellie Mae. (The rankings are courtesy of National Mortgage News' Loan Broker Database.)Meanwhile, Ellie Mae recently laid off 31 sales employees as part of an overall restructuring of that division.See NMN reporter Tony Garritano's story in Monday's NMN...
It appears that the mortgage insurance industry has a new king. According to NMN'snew Quarterly Data Report, The PMI Group wrote $12.6 billion in new MI policies in the first quarter,edging out MGIC...
In other MI news, the initial public offering of Genworth Financial, the parent ofGE Mortgage Insurance, is due this week, possibly on Monday. Also, Radian recently announced a three-million-sharerepurchase program...
Fact taken from Household International's recent SEC filing: 10.05% of real estateloans it services with "limited recourse" are delinquent. In the first quarter it took a $212 millionhit on real estate charge-offs. Household is no longer part of FM Policy Focus, the anti-Fannie/Freddiegroup...
The New York Mortgage Co. LLC has announced the addition of 10 new branch offices aspart of an "assumption agreement" it has with SIB Mortgage Corp. The expansion extends NYMC'sretail operations into Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire and Virginia...
Subprime lender Delta Financial last week revised its first-quarter earnings. The publiclytraded mortgage lender said it lost $0.35 per diluted share in the first quarter, not the previously reported $0.55.Delta's shares have been tanking of late...
Deposits can be used to fund mortgages. And there are a few ways to gather deposits. One wayis to market to consumers. Another way is to hit up the big fish, which is exactly what Flagstar Bancorp is doing.In 2001, the Michigan-based mortgage lender began calling on local municipal agencies as deposit clients. At year-end2003, Flagstar boasted municipal deposit accounts of $91.5 million, an 11% increase from year-end 2002.
CLARIFICATION: In last week's column, we noted that Citigroup still owns TravelersInsurance. Actually, that's not quite true. Citi, which merged with Travelers back in 1998, has been sheddingits insurance assets. As of last week, it owned a tiny stake in Travelers' successor company. However, Citigroupcontinues to use the red Travelers' umbrella logo in its marketing materials...
WASHINGTON NEWS: It appears that the Department of Housing and Urban Developmenthasn't given up on RESPA reform after all. Last week HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson said he will begin meetingwith industry groups to discuss changes to RESPA. Will the industry see anything substantive before November'selection? Don't bet the mortgage on it.
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Subprime lender American Business Financial Services, Philadelphia,has hired William Winters as senior vice president in charge of growing the firm's broker business. He andhis staff of 40 are based in Edgewater, Md. ABFS recently posted a quarterly loss of $33.2 million.
MORTGAGE DATA NOTICE: NMN, for a limited amount of time, is offering a new specialindustry research white paper entitled "15 Mortgage Firms to Keep an Eye on in 2004 & 2005." Some of the firms analyzed in this exclusive report include Ameriquest, Cendant and Nexstar. For more informationcontact Elizabeth Washington at (202) 434-0328 or email
@ThomsonMedia.com.
