Lehman Brothers, to some degree, has reorganized its Finance America wholesale subprime unit.Out in the cold is FA's chief executive, chief operating officer and the head of human resources. For the breakingstory see the Monday morning posting of MortgageWire, the daily website of National MortgageNews...
Fannie Mae is getting closer to picking a new chief executive officer. To find out who the two leadingcandidates are (one is a major banker) read the Monday edition of National Mortgage News. Don't subscribe?Call: (800) 221-1809..
E*Trade is shutting down its correspondent lending unit. As the weekend approached, a spokeswoman confirmedthe change...
Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said this past week that a sell-offof Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's mortgage portfolios over time would "pose no significant difficulties"for the markets. The Fed chairman has been urging Congress to pass a regulatory reform bill that requires the twogovernment-sponsored enterprises to substantially reduce the size of their portfolios, which have combined assetsof $1.4 trillion. As we noted in last week's column the White House isn't backing down from its desire to clipthe GSEs' portfolios...
We understand the law firm of Fried Frank was the mystery counsel aiding the FHLB of Seattle inits investigation of two of its directors. Those directors, Allan Landon and Roy Whitehead, recentlystepped down from the GSE...
Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC's "Mad Money," this past week referred to Countrywide CEO AngeloMozilo as his "good friend" and told viewers to buy the stock. A relatively new show, “Mad Money,”is a cross between "Let's Make a Deal" and the old Dan Dorfman show. Mr. Cramer, the host, comesacross as a man who downed 12 cups of coffee in five minutes. Is it news? Is it entertaining? That's a judgmentcall...
Michigan's Washtenaw Mortgage Co. is now offering 40-year residential mortgages, a first for many ofthe states in which the company conducts business...
CitiFinancial has announced that it will eliminate mandatory arbitration provisionson real estate-secured loans later this year and reduce its maximum prepayment penalty. The new mandatory arbitrationpolicy will begin with loans originated after August 2005, the company said..
Nearly a quarter of the website visitors responding toa poll by KB Home saidthey bought a home in the first six months of their marriage, according to the Los Angeles-based homebuilder...
Washington Mutual said it will open a new regional operations center in Texas this year, creating asmany as 4,200 jobs in the state over seven years. Countrywide hasbeen moving jobs to Texas for several years now...
Nonconforming lender Fieldstone Mortgage of Maryland reported that its investment portfolio increased7.4% to $5.1 billion at March 31...
WASHINGTON NEWS: It could take Fannie Mae as long as three years to implement reforms and clean up allits financial reporting problems, according to Armando Falcon Jr., the GSE's former regulator. Mr.Falcon, in an exit interview with NMN also predicted it will take the Office of Federal Housing EnterpriseOversight through the end of this year to complete its special examination of the company. See BrianCollins' story in Monday's NMN.
MORTGAGE/FINANCE PEOPLE: The LOGS Network, a group of attorneys, trustees, title personneland collection staff that represents lenders, has named Sharon Litt executive vice president of strategicplanning. She will report to LOGS vice chairman David Kreisman. Federal Reserve Boardgovernor Edward Gramlich has announced he is resigning effective Aug. 31 to pursue several teaching andresearch interests. Mr. Gramlich, 65, has served on the board since November 1997 and has played key roles in pushingthrough major changes to the Fed's Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act and Home Mortgage Disclosure Act regulations.Lime Financial has named Joel Cambern as vice president and Northwest regional manager.
FINAL SURVEY REMINDER: Lenders and servicers don't forget to fill out our annual survey. Respondentswill receive FREE our daily mortgage news briefing (which is called, of course, Daily Briefing) plus willbe ranked in NMN, the Mortgage Industry Directory and other publications. To view the survey
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
