Let's start off this weekend's column with some, well, good news. It's out there -- you just have to dig for it. (And God knows the industry needs it.) So here, goes. On Wednesday, the share price of private-label funder/servicer PHH Corp. hit a new 52-week high: $30.53. The company isn't exactly current on its earnings but it's working towards it…
And here's another piece of good news: It looks as though Option One Mortgage Corp.will be sold for at least $1.3 billion. During an earnings call, officials at the parent company noted that the subprime wholesaler is starting to see signs of improvement in its early payment defaults. For full details see Monday's National Mortgage News. Don't subscribe? Call: (800) 221-1809…
In case your wondering, there will be one huge beneficiary of all the carnage in the nonprime sector. That would be the mortgage insurance industry. 80-10-10 and piggyback loan structures used to avoid MI are on the way out and that means the MIs are looking good…
OK, enough of this Pollyanna stuff. If you're looking for a current -- and accurate list -- of dead subprime firms see our Weekend Edition e-mail. It's not a pretty picture. Also not pretty are the subprime operations of HSBC. Heads began rolling there on Thursday and it's likely that more will follow. But there is some good news there as well (sort of). HSBC bought subprime giant Household International back in 2003 for $14.4 billion. It now has bad debt reserves of $10 billion on the unit, which is called HSBC Finance. Add the $10 billion to the $14.4 billion and you get $24.4 billion. What's so good about this? It gets National Bank of Australia off the hook for the worst mortgage company purchase of all time. In 1997, NAB paid $1.2 billion for HomeSide Lending of Florida, only to liquidate the company a few years later. Joe Pickett ran HomeSide and was -- and still is -- a Fannie Mae director…
Speaking of Fannie Mae, its "new" board recently (most of the Frank Raines cronies are gone) put the kibash on some $44 million in stock rewards owed to past and current GSE executives. This "get tough" board also killed company-sponsored country club memberships. Yes, that's right: no more filet mignon dinners at the Bethesda Country Club off of Connecticut Avenue. But just down the road there's a McDonalds…
In case you've been on vacation, publicly traded subprime REITs are starting to look like an endangered species. (Just read National Mortgage News Online of the past week.) And which investment banking firm promoted the mortgage REIT concept as the greatest thing since sliced bread? That would be Friedman Billings Ramsey whose stock is trading near a 52-week low…
Merrill Lynch's spokesman called to tell us that the Wall Street warehouse lender tried to work out a deal with ResMAE Mortgage prior to the wholesaler's recent bankruptcy filing. Merrill was trying to get ResMAE to buyback $308 million in early payment defaults. The spokesman said that despite what ResMAE claims in its bankruptcy filing, the loans it sold to Merrill were indeed in default. He said Merrill offered the non-depository numerous options on the buybacks but all were rejected. "They went bankrupt rather than paying us," he said…
There's life after bankruptcy: Rick E. Smith and Steve Paton have been hired to head up Marix, a new specialty loan servicing and loss mitigation business that is slated to begin operations soon at Marathon Asset Management LLC, New York. Both were formerly employed by Mortgage Lenders Network USA, which recently went bust…
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WASHINGTON NEWS: The Department of Housing and Urban Development has initiated a rulemaking process to crack down on downpayment assistance programs that have bolstered Federal Housing Administration single-family loan originations but also led to rising FHA defaults and foreclosures, according to the HUD inspector general. See Brian Collins' story on MortgageWire (National Mortgage News Online.)
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Joyce Mizerak has resigned as president of Hanover Capital Partners. She also gave up her titles as senior managing director and board member. James E. Gilleran, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle, will leave his post effective this April. The bank’s board of directors has elected Richard Riccobono, the bank’s chief operating officer, to succeed Mr. Gilleran. Both have served as directors of the Office of Thrift Supervision. DATA NEWS: The new 4Q edition of the Quarterly Data Report is almost ready. If you need rankings on the top 100 mortgage funders and servicers with breakouts on loan channels, subprime and much more e-mail
