Did the press bury the lead in regard to Fannie Mae's conference call on Thursday? In case you missedit, Fannie said it had discovered yet more accounting errors and had hired the "Superman of Accounting,"former MCI CFO Robert Blakely to help save the day. Buried in Thursday's Securities and ExchangeCommission filing is the revelation that the New York Stock Exchange asked the SEC to change the standardsby which it should delist companies that do not file timely earnings statements. (That would be Fannie, which hasnot reported since 2Q 2004 because of the incompetence/ignorance of former management.) Most media outlets of importanceignored the delisting aspect of the filing. In case you're wondering, Fannie is a primo candidate for delisting.The elephant in the room that no one is talking about is this: why is the NYSE going out of its way to help FannieMae? One investment banker told asked us this: "Why is there one standard for Fannie and one for everyoneelse?" Good question
It looks as though the founder of Matrix Bancorp, Guy A. Gibson, is coming back to run the company.Through a complicated tender offer, Mr. Gibson could be in control again by early next year. Matrix owns one ofthe largest evaluators of residential servicing rights in the nation. For more details see the Monday edition ofNational Mortgage News. Don't subscribe? Telephone: (800) 221-1809
In about 10 days National Mortgage News will release its 3Q edition of its popular Quarterly DataReport product, which ranks the nation's top 100 lenders and 50 subprime firms and much more. For the bestmidyear data you may want to investigate the Midyear Data Report. It's the best product in the business.For more information, contact
Here's a shocker from the National Association of Home Builders: "Americans overwhelmingly supportretaining federal tax incentives to promote homeownership and oppose altering the current system." NAHB saidit recently polled what it calls 800 "likely voters." Sounds to me like the trade group is trying tosend a message to the White House
On occasion we like to highlight neighborhoods that were once troubled areas but are now staging revivals. Mostof what we've mentioned has been on the East Coast, so here's one for the West Coast: Watts, in Los Angeles. Accordingto DataQuick Information Services, resale home values increased 40% last year. Demand in this once predominatelyAfrican-American community is being fueled by Latino homebuyers
Management at mortgage lender NetBank is reviewing $13 million of mortgage loans due to "irregularities."The company is delaying its earnings release to conduct an internal review of $13 million of conforming mortgagesit originated and sold to investors. Stay turned
In October of last year MortgageIT launched a national correspondent lending platform. So, how's theunit been doing? In the third quarter of 2005, the correspondent division accounted for 13.8% of MortgageIT's totaloriginations
Subprime lender ECC Capital recorded a loss provision of $8.8 million in the quarter due to HurricaneKatrina damage
Murrayhill Corp. has changed its name to Clayton Fixed Income Services, so reports company officialTom Cronin
WASHINGTON NEWS: NMN's Brian Collins reports that seven Republicans on the House tax-writingcommittee are prepared to block any attempt by the Bush administration to scale back the mortgage interest deductionand eliminate the deduction for property taxes. Rep. Jerry Weller, R-Ill., warned last week thatthe recommendations by the president's tax reform panel would be "dead on arrival" if the White Houseendorses them and sends them up to the House Ways and Means Committee as a legislative proposal.
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: MBS pioneer Lewis Ranieri -- who still has a toe or two in world of mortgagebanking -- has joined ROOT Markets as its executive chairman. ROOT is a financial exchange for consumerleads. Mortgage Industry Advisory Company has hired Robert W. Lee as SVP, capital markets.Mr. Lee joins MIAC after a seven-year tenure at Lehman Brothers.
UPCOMING CONFERENCES: If Hurricane Wilma caused you to miss the annual MBA show try Vegas. Check outthe LoanToolbox and SourceMedia conference on "Business Plan 2006." (SourceMediapublishes NMN.) The meeting will be held Dec. 6-9 in Las Vegas where no hurricanes are expected -- or everstrike. For more information
DATA NOTICE: Don't forget the brand-new "eMortgage Industry Directory" is now available.This online, Web-friendly product features three modules -- one each for lenders, servicers and commercial mortgagebankers. Key features include rankings and profiles on the top 400 firms plus an exclusive ranking of the nation'stop loan brokers and loan officers. For more information contact
