THIS JUST IN: A midtier bank that is knee deep in the credit card business is looking for residential servicing help and has contacted 10 "combat servicers" for their assistance. For full details see the Monday edition of National Mortgage News. Don't subscribe? Call 800-221-1809...
Jeannine Bruin of GMAC Mortgage's corporate communications department took umbrage when I "editorialized" in a recent NMN Web story, saying that Residential Capital Corp. is "on the auction block." Ms. Bruin wrote, "The company has not said that the ResCap business is up for sale." OK, fair enough. Got that? If you want to buy the nation's fifth largest servicer (figures courtesy of the Quarterly Data Report) it ain't really for sale. Or maybe it is. She did confirm (as reported by many including us) that GMAC is "exploring strategic alternatives" in regard to ResCap. Usually, "exploring strategic alternatives" (ESA) is code language for "Hey, everybody, we're selling this baby." In this case, "ESA" could mean GMAC is rolling the dice and plans to buy other companies. OK, that can't be right. Or maybe it will be broken into tiny mortgage pieces and sold? Or maybe it means Scotty will beam them up through the new Star Trek transporter morphing them into a profitable company. Or maybe it means they're too big to be sold. Wait, I think I got it. That's it: they would love to be sold but in this crummy mortgage environment - one where origination profits are truly fat but legacy assets are dragging down the future - no one wants to buy, at least not for GMAC's asking price. If only GMAC were owned by the government maybe something would happen. Actually, they are (majority) owned by the government...
In case you missed it, yet another retail lender is entering the wholesale market. This time around it's New American Funding of Irvine, Calif. As most of you know, Irvine was once the epicenter of the nation's subprime industry with Melville, N.Y., being the East Coast version of Irvine. Anyway, Brad Finkelstein profiles New American in the upcoming edition of Origination News, an NMN affiliate. To order a sample copy of ON call 800-221-1809...
A week ago we reported that Security Atlantic Mortgage of New Jersey, one of 15 lenders subpoenaed by the government in early January because of high claim rates, had stopped taking new FHA loan applications but was vowing to carry on nonetheless. "SA fully intends to continue its operations and will remain staffed," said company executive vice president Noel Chapman. That was a week ago. Mr. Chapman has not returned several e-mails and phone calls. Many of those subpoenaed are quite angry with FHA for publicizing the subpoenas. Stay tuned...
This past Thursday the Mortgage Bankers Association held a briefing on the Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act. Scheduled to speak about RESPA changes was Ivy Jackson, director of HUD's RESPA office. The meeting was closed to the press. HUD wanted it open...
If you would like a complete list of the nation's top interest-only lenders send an e-mail to
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Bank of America Home Loans named Matt Vernon to lead its effort in residential short sales and REO dispositions. Mr. Vernon will move from the bank's production unit over to its servicing division in an effort to move foreclosed properties off its balance sheet. Matt Padilla, who wrote the "Mortgage Insider" column for The Orange County Register, has left the building. His last day at the OCR was Thursday. Matt, my co-author on "Chain of Blame, How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis" (just out in paperback) told me he's going over to "the dark side." (That would be corporate PR.) He will be sorely missed.
DATA NOTICE No. 1: Planning for the rest of 2010 and need soup-to-nuts statistics on the nation's top residential (and commercial) lenders and servicers? The new MortgageStats.com data product might be what you're looking for. 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 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: Go Saints!
