The annual convention of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers opens in SaltLake City this weekend. Ellie Mae is hosting a dinner with National Mortgage News to congratulatethe top 50 loan brokers in 2003. The exclusive rankings were compiled by NMN...
Angelo Mozilo and Countrywide probably have done more than anyone else in theindustry to shepherd the growth of the brokerage industry. This Wednesday the Countrywide chairman will receivethe 2004 Housing Person of the Year Award from the National Housing Conference. Mr. Mozilo co-founded Countrywideback in 1969...
Servicing brokers can open the champagne now. According to a new report by MIAC ofNew York, "Servicing rights on 30-year conventional mortgages picked up approximately 42% in value from Marchto April." That's correct: 42%, which is nothing to sneeze at. Recent changes in accounting rules allow firmsthat own housing receivables (servicing) rights to "markup" the value of the asset. It's anticipatedthat several large bulk servicing packages could start hitting the market shortly. At least one firm is contemplatingunloading $20 billion worth of servicing, sources said recently...
Was/is Washington Mutual, the nation's largest servicer, for sale? According to NMN'sTed Cornwell, WaMu chairman and CEO Kerry Killinger last week threw cold water on the sale rumors.At a Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. investors conference, Mr. Killinger said WaMu's board is always seekingopportunities to grow and to create value for shareholders, noting that the company has done "an excellentjob" of achieving superior shareholder returns. "We will continue to take the same approach going forward,"he said. "It would take something extraordinarily attractive for the board to move in any other direction."Investment banking sources say there is no offering book out on WaMu...
While we're on the subject of M&A, Citigroup chief executive Charles Princesaid recently that U.S. retail bank valuations are "out of line" which means the world's largest financialservices company will wait for lower prices before gobbling up other depositories firms...
Quicken Loans (also known as Rock Financial) plans to expand its Michigan operationsin Troy, resulting in the creation of 1,200 new direct jobs and an additional 4,695 indirect jobs over the nextfour years. Assistance from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. convinced Quicken to locate the $29.1million expansion in Michigan rather than Nevada...
Meanwhile, alt-A giant Indy Mac plans to employ 300 mortgage workers in India by year-end...
American Home Mortgage Investment is making headway in the private-label arena. AHMI,a mortgage REIT, announced a private label agreement between its subsidiary, American Home Mortgage Corp.and Signature Bank...
WASHINGTON NEWS: The Department of Housing and Urban Development still doesnot know whether downpayment assistance programs offered by nonprofit organizations are pushing up Federal HouseAdministration default rates. And it doesn't seem to be in a hurry to find out. Back in September 2002, theHUD inspector general issued a report that found the default rate on FHA single-family loans with DPA increasedfrom 4.6% in October 1999 to 19.4% in February 2002. Nonprofit DPA providers complained that the HUD IG used toosmall a loan sample and FHA officials pledged to conduct a larger study. That study was supposed to be completedby December 2003. But it is taking much longer than expected. Some industry sources believe HUD will never releaseit.
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: WMC Mortgage has named Kathleen Lipps senior vice presidentof its Northeast division. Ms. Lipps joins WMC from New Century Mortgage Corp. IndyMac has named Sen.John Seymour (retired) to serve on its board. Lime Financial has named Jeffrey Zeltzer to itsboard. Mr. Zeltzer is executive director of the National Home Equity Mortgage Association, a trade groupthat caters to subprime firms.
MORTGAGE DATA/RESEARCH NOTICE: NMN, for a limited amount of time, is offeringtwo of its mortgage technology white papers, "Transactional Retail Mortgage Website Report" and"Mortgage LOS Report," for the discounted price of $249 each. Order both and get an additional5% off. For more information contact Elizabeth Washington at (202) 434-0328 or e-mail:
@ThomsonMedia.com
