THIS JUST IN: A $10 billion bulk package of residential servicing rights is expected to hit the market shortly. For the full story see the Monday edition of National Mortgage News. Don't subscribe? Call 800-221-1809. Also in Monday's issue: a list of the nation's top residential servicers at June 30. A top 100 ranking is available in the new Quarterly Data Report. For more info on the QDR e-mail
A source close to the matter tells us that the two top warehouse executives at the now-defunct Colonial Bancorp - once the nation's largest warehouse provider - have been put on administrative leave. (Treasury is investigating the warehouse relationship between the bank and Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, the now-defunct nonbank lender that hoped to buy Colonial.) If you call Colonial's warehouse unit in Florida they answer the phones by saying BB&T...
Who's the second largest unsecured creditor of TBW? Answer: That would be James G. Hicks of Lawrenceville, Ga., who has staked a claim for $9 million. Who, exactly, is Mr. Hicks? If you have any information drop me an e-mail at
In an interview with NMN this week Lenders One CEO Scott Stern called the nation's warehouse crisis "very real and getting worse." Read Monday's NMN story on that issue, too, along with Brian Collins' analysis of banks stepping up their residential fundings...
By now you've read all the stories about dwindling cash reserves at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which could take control of another 400 banks over the next year. But buried in the agency's asset report is a line item that says it controls $43.2 billion of "assets" which are not cash or "cash equivalents." I'm assuming these include, to some degree, residential and commercial whole loans and securities that aren't exactly liquid. We know the agency has at least $4 billion in residential whole loans but that figure is a few months old. If push comes to shove the agency might fire-sale these assets which means bottom-fishers might get a sweet deal. By the way, the FDIC is like the federal government. It has the ability to tax by charging "assessments" to the banks it supervises. By making banks pay more for federal deposit insurance coverage the FDIC can raise additional funds. If a bank is forced to pay more for insurance coverage it stands to reason it will pay depositors less in terms of yield. In other words, the consumer is really footing the bill. And the consumer is footing the bill for higher origination costs because just four lenders - Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase and Citigroup - have (presently) a cartel-like lock on the business. Or is it just my imagination? Here's a question: Why should any of these four be involved in warehouse lending? If they choke off credit to nonbank lenders (by not stepping up their warehouse lending) all those customers might wind up in the branches of the cartel. It would be nice if Congress held a hearing on the mortgage cartel but they're too busy finding ways to put nonbank lenders and brokers out of business. Too big to fail rules the land. Competition is dead...
The Mortgage Industry Advisory Corp. is now 20 years old. Congratulations to Bob Husted, Dan Thomas and the crew in New York...
I have horrible news for all of you: the housing industry is about to fall off the cliff again. How do I know? Because CNBC's stock picker James Cramer wrote a column this past week entitled "Housing Is Back, Despite Media's Worries." As you well know whatever Mr. Cramer thinks/suggests the opposite happens. Who knows, maybe he's right this time. But what really drives housing? Answer: Employment. This past week a University of Michigan report said U.S. consumer confidence fell to its lowest in four months in August on worries of - you guessed it - high unemployment and dismal personal finances...
California's implementation of the SAFE Act (Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act) should happen in the next few weeks, according to the California Mortgage Bankers Association. For an active California loan broker this means they will have to be licensed as an individual - no longer can they use a company license and act as a loan officer of a company licensee...
I recently received an e-mail from Frank Hattemer, the former head of warehouse finance for the multifamily unit of Washington Mutual. Frank is in South America. Frank, send me an e-mail in English. No hablo Espanol...
Google - the "Death Star" of all of publishing's ad dollars - has set its sights on the mortgage-referral business, where its name recognition and technology pose a threat to the best-known name in the market, LendingTree. That report comes from American Banker...
Hedge fund manager John Paulson, who made a killing shorting the subprime ABX index two years back, has reportedly been buying up shares in Citigroup...
WASHINGTON NEWS: The mortgage industry has until Christmas to weigh in on a Federal Reserve Board proposal that could completely change the way most originators are compensated. Last week, the Fed finally issued a proposed rule that pushes residential lenders toward paying originators a flat fee that is stated upfront and cannot be increased due to changes in the interest rate or other loan terms. See Brian Collins' full story in NMN...
CORRECTION: I was on vacation last week and blogging from the road - and using just my memory. I made a mistake when I mentioned California's $10,000 tax credit. It apparently expired a few months back and was only for buyers of new homes. Sorry for the mistake. And thanks to those readers who offered to take me and my kids surfing in La Jolla. Nice place. As for Los Angeles. They had better start building some subways fast...
DATA NOTICE No. 1: Just a reminder but the new Mortgagestats.com data product is ready. M-Stats (which you can subscribe to) is Web-based and incorporates both the Quarterly Data Report and our annual Mortgage Industry Directory. Among other things, it has annual rankings on the top 400 lenders and servicers, including breakdowns on retail, wholesale and correspondent - and news archives. There's contact info, too, and plenty of data on servicing. And here's the best part: you get quarterly updates. To see a sample send an e-mail to
DATA NOTICE No. 2: Even though we have just launched our new MortgageStats.com product you can still subscribe to the Quarterly Data Report, a spreadsheet product that provides readers with quarterly rankings on the nation's top lenders and servicers. There's also a companion product called the "Alt-QDR" which provides rankings on second liens, jumbos and much more. Again, shoot an e-mail to
