Deutsche Bank wants to purchase small-balance commercial mortgages and is in the market for a platformthat might get them there, sources tell us. "They would like to make an acquisition of a company," saidone official familiar with the matter. Deutsche recently inked a deal to buy MortgageIT Holdings, a top25 ranked residential funder. But at least one industry veteran, IndyMac's Mike Perry, thinks Deutscheis buying a clunker. During IndyMac's recent earnings conference call, Mr. Perry (a veteran at age 43) called MortgageITa "crappy company." His comments appeared in the Friday edition of American Banker, a sisterpublication to NMN. Mr. Perry is a protégé of Countrywide Home Loans chairmanand CEO, Angelo Mozilo. (Years ago, Countrywide owned a stake in IndyMac.) Mr. Mozilo, by the way, was expectedto relinquish his CEO title at year-end but remain on as chairman. The board was expected to pick a successor,but we understand that they are taking their time. Also, there's speculation that Mr. Mozilo might be staying onas CEO (or in some other management capacity) a bit longer...
Meanwhile, Countrywide might be losing a top executive in its secondary markets division. The executive(whose departure we could not confirm) may be headed to Morgan Stanley in London, a source told NMN’sBrian Collins. Late this past week a Countrywide spokeswoman did not return several telephone calls aboutthe matter. A few weeks ago NMN reported that Joe Anderson, senior managing director in charge ofCountrywide's consumer markets division, has left the company...
And in one other personnel change, Acoustic Home Loans president and co-founder, Frank Curry,is now working for Platinum Capital Corp., Irvine, Calif., a retailer and wholesale lender...
This past week Merrill Lynch declared that housing is in a bear market and that a "buyer's market"for homes should last for "years." Merrill notes that the unsold inventories of homes continues to pileup, and that resale prices are flattening in the single-family market, while declining for condominiums...
About 25% of seniors have yet to pay off their mortgages. Back in 1983 just 11% of seniors had not paid offtheir house loan. This information comes from the Los Angeles Times, citing a Boston Collegeanalysis of Federal Reserve data...
Nonconforming lender LIME Financial Services has obtained a $10 million "leverage capital facility"from Credit Suisse. But there's a little bit more to the story. For details see the Monday edition of NMN.Don't subscribe or you were careless enough to let your subscription lapse? Call: (800) 221-1809...
Calculated Industries of Carson City, Nev., the folks that make mortgage calculators, had a record yearin 2005. The privately held company caters to both lenders and Realtors. More than 200 schools use its products,as well as Countrywide, Wells Fargo and World Savings...
A new TowerGroup report says offshoring of loan origination and servicing processes totaled $462 millionin 2005, and will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 21% through 2010...
Subprime lender Centex Home Equity -- which has a new owner -- recently changed its name to NationstarMortgage LLC. A few weeks back Fortress Investments bought Centex...
I seemed to have stirred up a hornet's nest in last week's column when I suggested that Mike McDonaldput The Doobie Brothers on the musical map. As many readers pointed out the Doobies were already big beforeMike joined the band, bringing his blue-eyed soul to the group. Mike is set to play the annual MBA conventionin the fall. A few readers agreed with me that MBA should hire Wilco to play at its next convention. Andone top source inside MBA favors Jethro Tull...
WASHINGTON NEWS: By a 415-7 vote, the House passed a bill that will supposedly make the Federal HousingAdministration single-family program competitive again. The government believes -- as do many industry executives-- that traditional FHA borrowers are being steered into alt-A and subprime loans. The House vote is largely symbolicbecause the real fight over the FHA reform -- which the Bush administration supports -- will occur duringa House and Senate conference on the HUD appropriations bill, which has already cleared the House. However, theHouse vote certainly increases pressure on Senate appropriators to include key FHA reforms in the HUD appropriationsbill.
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Sunset Financial Resources, a mortgage REIT based in Florida, has named StacyM. Riffe interim chief executive officer. Ms. Riffe replaces George Deehan, who decided to leave thecompany to "pursue other interests," the company said. Mortgage insurer Triad Guaranty has hiredKatrina Kaiser as a senior account executive. She will report to Wade Hamby, VP and southeast divisionmanager. The Senate confirmed Geoffrey Bacino, a former credit union regulator and lobbyist, to be a directorto the Federal Housing Finance Board. The FHFB oversees the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks, which oneof these decades will be whittled down to five.
DATA NEWS: National Mortgage News recently updated its Mortgage Broker Databaseproduct which tracks the nation's top loan brokerage firms, including top producers at those shops. For more infoe-mail
