Now, why the heck would investor Kirk Kerkorian want to own so much General Motors stock for?Could it be he thinks oil is going to come down in price and the SUV market -- which GM is hooked on like a junkie-- will revive? (Don't bet on it.) Or could it be that he really wants a crack at GMAC Residential Mortgage,RFC and GMAC Commercial Mortgage? Just as Standard & Poor's was downgrading GeneralMotors and GMAC to junk status, GM announced it had "restructured" GMAC Mortgage and RFC, placing themunder a new holding company called Residential Capital Corp. The holding company is talking to the threerating agencies about getting their own rating. Why would Mr. Kerkorian want the automaker's mortgage empire? Maybebecause it earned $1.1 billion last year. Of course, GMAC Commercial (which is not part of the new holding company)soon may be sold to investment banker Lewis Ranieri and his partners. Then again, the commercial unit hadthe weakest earnings of three mortgage groups, just $204 million compared to $629 million for RFC and $275 millionfor GMAC Residential. For the full story on GM/GMAC's downgrade to junk, see Bonnie Sinnock's story in Monday'sNational Mortgage News...
Loan brokers are at the forefront of the origination process and according to the Federal Bureau of Investigationthey see a ton of fraud but apparently aren't reporting it. For the full story also see Monday's NMN...
Meanwhile, FBI officials last week said some insurance companies may be engaging in daisy-chain activities wherethey sell their bad paper to each other. The FBI invoked the S&L crisis when describing the problem. In theold days we used to call it trading "dead horses for dead cows"...
Talking of the S&L crisis, former Federal Home Loan Bank Board crime fighter Bill Black hasa new book out. It's called "The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One"...
Roughly 49% of all loans funded in the second half last year were ARMs, according to NMN's QuarterlyData Report. If you've seen another number that's higher you may want to look at our numbers. For a rankingof all FRM and ARM lenders order the QDR. Contact:
@SourceMedia.com
Remember Larry Charbonneau of the Texas-based Charbonneau & Klein, which brokered many a mortgageM&A deal in their day? Larry is back with a new venture, Republic Strategic Advisory Corp., an affiliateof mortgage insurer RMIC...
Nonconforming lender Fieldstone Investment Corp. of Maryland reported record net income for the firstquarter of 2005 was $42.1 million...
PHH Corp., the parent of PHH Mortgage of Mount Laurel, N.J., is set to release first-quarter earningson Friday, May 13. You can assume, based on the picking of the date, that the company is not superstitious...
E-Loan, whose share price has been under $5 for well over a year, releases its first-quarter earningson May 10...
In case you missed the recent story in NMN, Bear Stearns has launched a wholesale residentialmortgage platform. Bear is the No. 1 ranked underwriter of private-label MBS. In other Bear Stearns news, the SupremeCourt has refused to overturn a $6 million punitive damages award against Bear's Texas-based EMC MortgageCorp. affiliate. EMC was accused of harassing a Missouri couple who defaulted on their mortgage. The couplelater filed for bankruptcy protection...
Warren Buffet, America's poster boy for "value investing," thinks FannieMae and Freddie Mac should have portfolio caps. At Berkshire Hathaway's recent annual meeting,CEO Buffet said, "It would not be the end of the world at all if Fannie and Freddie no longer had new portfoliopurchases." A few years back billionaire Buffet said that potential "icebergs" at FannieMae and Freddie Mac spurred Berkshire to sell most of its holdings in the secondary market giants. Keep in mindthat Berkshire, of late, has been betting against the U.S. dollar by selling the greenback. How did Berkshire doin the first quarter on its dollar bets? It lost $310 million...
Forbes magazine recently named Sandler O'Neill's Mike McMahonas one of the top analysts of the year. Mike covers Fannie, Freddie, Countrywide and other financial servicestocks...
A new Experian and Gallup poll found that 65% of peoplesay they've never heard of a "housing bubble." However, once defined, about four in 10 consumers saya housing bubble is likely to occur in their area within the next three years...
WASHINGTON NEWS: Though controversial differences remain, congressional committeescould start marking up legislation to create a new regulator for Fannie and Freddie within weeks and send a billto the president by the end of the year, Senate staffers said at a recent industry trade show. "I think we'rereally close," said Joe Cwiklinski, staff director of the Securities and Investment Subcommittee.
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Jeff Hyde has been named a managing director in thefixed-income group of Sandler O'Neill. He will focus on trading mortgage pass-throughs for the firm's clients.Standard & Poor’s has named Susan Barnes practice leader and head of its structured finance residential mortgage group.
SURVEY REMINDER: Lenders and servicers don't forget tofill out our annual survey. Respondents will receive FREE our dailymortgage news briefing (which is called, of course, Daily Briefing) plus will be ranked in NMN, the Mortgage Industry Directory and other publications. To view thesurvey
DATA NOTICE: NMNhas just published its Annual Data Report, which provides rankings on the top 100 prime and subprime lenders and servicers -- plus channelbreakdowns -- and much more. Also available: NMN'snew Alternative Products Quarterly Data Report, whichhas rankings on the top interest-only, alt-A and jumbo lenders. For more info about these products, contact
@SourceMedia.com. Dee can also give you info about our "M&A Database." NMN is still offering research reportson " LOS Systems," " D2C Internet Lending"and " Retail Lending Over the Internet."For more info on those contact
@SourceMedia.com
