Loan brokers were popping champagne on Friday when the Federal Housing Administration declared that "direct endorsement" lenders (those with "table funding" money) should be fully liable for the mortgages they originate through third-party salesmen (brokers). FHA also said brokers no longer need to register or meet the agency's net worth requirements. (Full coverage of FHA's new declarations were on the National Mortgage News website early Friday:
Here's another thought: Should Congress mandate market share caps on residential lenders and servicers at 5% or 10%? This would help break up the monopolies that are now forming. Of course, some might argue that this smacks of socialism and is anti-capitalism. Then again, too big to fail is, well, too big to fail. And then there's TARP...
By the way, our coverage of all the FHA developments on Friday was done by our Washington bureau chief Brian Collins. For tips drop Brian a line at
Meanwhile, how's the "private" mortgage insurance business doing these days? Well, according to the new 2Q edition of the Quarterly Data Report, MIs saw their new business drop by 61% in the latest period. Also, according to the QDR, there are still 40 or so active wholesalers and a similar number of correspondents. To order the QDR send an e-mail to
Some investment bankers that sell servicing portfolios and NPL (nonperforming loan) assets are waiting for the fourth quarter to arrive. This is typically a period when mortgage bankers sell servicing portfolios to bolster yearend earnings or take their final lumps of the year. At NMN we write about servicing deals of all sizes. For instance, here's one from The Prestwick Mortgage Group of Virginia: a $9 million package of Fannie Mae "A/A" rights from Michigan. The weighted average servicing fee is 25 basis points...
The Mortgage Bankers Association released a profitability study late this past week. One of the most interesting findings (I think) was that some small nondepositories are showing an interest in owning their own servicing instead of selling it "released" to aggregators. This could bode well for servicing bureaus like Fidelity and Fiserv (and the future of the industry). For the full story see the Monday edition of NMN. Don't subscribe? Call 800-221-1809...
To use leverage on your "legacy asset" bid or not to use leverage - that is the question. The winning bidder on the FDIC's $1.3 billion whole loan auction was levered 6-to-1. In total, 12 consortiums bid on the pool of mostly first lien whole loans (there were 83 second liens in there) but some bidders had all cash and weren't levered. "The unlevered bids were lower but they [the FDIC] took the highest [overall] bid," said one investment banker familiar with the auction. Several hedge funds were part of the consortiums that bid...
WASHINGTON NEWS: In case you missed it: Maybe the FDIC will need to borrow money from Treasury, after all. Agency chairman Sheila Bair said Friday the insurance fund is considering multiple options for meeting its future obligations.
UPCOMING IMPORTANT INDUSTRY MEETINGS: The MBA is holding its annual convention next month in San Diego. In November NMN and SourceMedia will be holding a loan modification show in Dallas. For more details e-mail
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
THE LAST WORD: It's Friday and that means the FDIC will close some banks. Have a nice weekend and have a happy Talk Like a Pirate Day tomorrow. Ahoy matey!
