Is Citigroup bidding on the mortgage operations of ABN Amro? It's hard to say, but rumors havebeen circulating for weeks. Over the past few months ABN has been a buyer of servicing rights in the secondarymarket -- at least that's what one servicing advisor told us. According to the Quarterly Data Report, ABNAmro Mortgage services $224 billion in residential loans, ranking eighth nationwide. Meanwhile, late this pastweek Citigroup bought a 7.5% "nonvoting limited liability company membership interest" in Opteum'sfinancial services unit. Opteum is a REIT. Its "financial services unit" is a mortgage banking firm managedby Peter Norden. Now, if the company could explain, in English, what exactly is a "nonvoting limitedliability company membership interest" that would make my Christmas...
Early this past week, NMN Online broke the news that Morgan Stanley slashed 170 jobs atits newly acquired subprime unit, Saxon Mortgage. Saxon's president, Mike Sawyer, and a handful oftop managers also departed -- but this was expected, we are told. Morgan, one source told us, also has expressedinterest in Ameriquest Mortgage, a once top-ranked subprime shop that is currently entertaining offers.Only paying subscribers to NMN can view the full text online version of the Saxon story. To subscribe call:(800) 221-1809...
Saxon Mortgage, by the way, is headquartered in Richmond, Va. Located in the same neighborhood is the regionaloperations of Encore Mortgage, which is slated for sale to Bear Stearns. We can't confirm this, buta former top executive at Saxon, Margaret Arthur Payne, launched the Encore east coast operation a few yearsago. The sale of Encore Mortgage -- a subsidiary of the publicly traded Encore Credit Corp. -- is expectedto close in the first quarter. However, there has been talk that Bear may be getting cold feet brought on by "buyback"influenza...
Add HomeBanc of Georgia to the list of mortgage firms that are climbing onto a very crowded auction block.(Here's a prediction: some lenders will fall off the edge of that block, landing in the black pit of failure.)In a recent statement the publicly traded company said its board "continues to consider and evaluate a widerange of strategic alternatives and presently expects this process to be completed during early 2007." Translatedinto English: the company is for sale...
It's the holiday season and the gifts are arriving almost daily at the editorial offices of National MortgageNews. Among the more interesting presents was a box of fortune cookies from Interthinx, which providesautomated fraud protection. One fortune reads: Confucius say, ID that's phony, makes mortgage app baloney!Of course, bourbon is a nice gift, too...
Freddie Mac has come to the rescue of the Charter House in Silver Spring, Md., an apartment complex forseniors with limited incomes. Just before Christmas Freddie donated $150,000 to ensure that recently displacedCharter House residents will be able to return home. Charter House was temporarily closed in early December afterthe building's water pump malfunctioned and flooded the boiler room...
INTERESTING: According to Friedman Billings Ramsey, in 2005 Fannie Mae and Freddie Macbought $221 billion in "non-agency" securities. FBR says if you assume that all these securities aresubprime related that means the two collectively purchased 37.2% of all issuances... Standard & Poor'ssays it's beginning to look like the housing market "has found a bottom after a precipitous fall from unsustainablehighs, and the question is quickly turning to whether this will be a V- or a U-shaped recovery for U.S. homebuilders."S&P thinks the recovery will be slow with "plenty of mixed signals and false starts along the way"...
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Radian Group has named Scott Theobald senior vice president of corporaterisk and capital management. Radian's affiliate, Radian Asset Assurance named David Rockwell seniorvice president, risk management. Janice (Walker) Daue, vice president of communications for Fannie Mae,is leaving the GSE after almost 20 years.
DATA NEWS: Looking for a great contact directory on mortgage bankers, servicers, brokers and loan officers?What about a database on every multifamily lender in the U.S.? That would be the Mortgage Industry Directorywhich is available online as well as in print. The MID/eMID also has exclusive rankings on lenders and servicersthat you cannot get elsewhere. The online version also provides recent news articles on lenders and servicers rankedin the book. For more information e-mail
