THIS JUST IN: A once-major Wall Street player in mortgages that was contemplating re-entering the warehouse lending arena has pulled the plug on the idea. For full details see the Monday print edition of National Mortgage News. Don't subscribe? Call: 800-221-1809...
NMN has put the final touches on its third-quarter origination rankings. The "cartel of two" (that would be Bank of America and Wells Fargo) saw a slight slippage in their market share: down to 38% from just over 42% in 2Q. (Monday's NMN has the complete rankings.) Will BoA and Wells continue to see their market hold slip? Let's talk about this a bit. Both still fund through retail, wholesale and correspondent means so that gives them a huge advantage over most other firms. Both also provide warehouse lines to their correspondents, another huge advantage. But midsized firms like MetLife Mortgage and others (so we're told) are starting to toy with the idea of providing warehouse lines while doing correspondent. With profit margins so wide right now, we keep hearing more stories about new entrants. But wait. RESPA changes and higher capital requirements will impede new entrants. Or will they? One thing seems certain: as long as you have money and experience, this business (mortgage lending/servicing) might be considered "wide open," that is, the entire business is up for grabs. By the entire business I mean everything outside of BoA and Wells. Heck, even I'm thinking of becoming a mortgage banker. Just kidding, but you get the point. As for the future of loan brokers, that's still an open question...
By the way, if you need up-to-date rankings on the nation's top 100 lenders and servicers and servicers contact:
And now for the Lend America saga. What can we say? The company is headquartered in what used to be the HQ of American Home Mortgage. That would be Melville, which was considered the "Irvine of the East." If you don't get the reference then you can scroll down to the next paragraph. A former employee told me that right down the block from the Lend America HQ there's a large delicatessen that during boom times had mortgage workers standing in line during the breakfast and lunch rush. Now the deli is down to a skeleton crew with customers scarce and some of its dairy cases empty. It's sad that 550 Lend America workers lost their jobs right before the holidays but we're told that some are already plotting their next career chapter in mortgages. As for the company's "chief business strategist" Michael Ashley we're told he brought in the big gun - Rudy Giuliani - to talk to HUD on the firm's behalf. HUD wasn't listening though. If you worked at Lend America and care to share any insights (confidentially) send me an e-mail at
As for the job market in mortgage banking, it appears the collections side of the business is hiring. NMN's Jennifer Harmon recently reported that servicers (and subservicers) are hiring like crazy. Jennifer also runs our online Managing REO newsletter. To contact her send an e-mail to
JUST A REMINDER: The Federal Reserve is still accepting comments (until Dec. 24) on its "Proposal for the Elimination of Yield-Spread Premium Payments to Mortgage Brokers." In case you missed it the proposals - among other things - prohibit certain payments to a mortgage broker or a loan officer that are based on the loan's terms and conditions. Brian Collins of the NMN staff has been following the issue closely all year...
So, maybe things aren't so bad in Europe after all. Bloomberg reports that Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling will scale back his estimate for the cost of bailing out Britain's banks to no more than £10 billion ($16.6 billion) from £50 billion ($83 billion)...
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Cole Taylor Bank of Illinois has hired Willie Newman to manage its newly created residential mortgage origination unit which (yes, it's true) will use loan brokers. Mr. Newman is a former executive vice president of ABN Amro Mortgage Group.
FROM OUR
SPEAKING OPPORTUNITY: SourceMedia, the folks that own NMN, American Banker, Credit Union Journal and other publications is looking for topics and speakers for its fourth annual mortgage servicing conference in Dallas. We already have some "topics and talkers" but we're looking for more. For more information contact
DATA NOTICE No. 1: Need soup-to-nuts statistics on the nation's top residential (and commercial) lenders and servicers? The new MortgageStats.com data product is ready. The user-friendly M-Stats 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 offer MortgageStats.com you can still subscribe to the Quarterly Data Report and Alternative Products QDR, spreadsheet products that provide readers with quarterly rankings on the nation's top lenders and servicers. There's also a companion product called the MidYear Data Report which offers half-year rankings on lenders, servicers and more. There is an Alt-QDR version of this as well. Again, shoot an e-mail to
THE LAST WORD: It's Friday and that means the FDIC is about to close some banks. We understand last week the agency was taking bids on a large depository/servicer. That institution could be closed this weekend.
