THIS JUST IN: Bank of America appears to be the largest warehouse lender in the nation with roughly $15 billion in commitments. Or not. The number comes from mortgage professionals who attended a recent trade show in Texas. Speaking on a panel, BoA's warehouse chief Paul Syzmanski supposedly revealed the figure to the audience. A call to Mr. Syzmanski from National Mortgage News went unreturned. A spokeswoman for the bank said it is company policy not to disclose the figure. (I'm not sure what the big secret is.) We know this, BoA (according to the Quarterly Data Report) is the largest correspondent buyer of mortgages in the nation. In years past large correspondent buyers oftentimes made warehouse lines too. The "catch" was this: you want a line, sell us all your loans, or half, or something like that. In Monday's NMN (the paper edition) we're publishing our final ranking of the nation's largest warehouse providers. To subscribe call: (800)221-1809. The table also appears in our Alternative Products Quarterly Data Report spreadsheet. To see a sample drop an email to:
Post script: BoA better not call me Monday morning and tell me that the number is wrong and that it's all a big misunderstanding on someone's part. But if they do, we'll print a correction. (How's that for hedging one's bets?)...
As readers know, we've been covering the buyback plague quite closely. (This past week buybacks were the cause of death in the demise of one Wisconsin lender we wrote about.) It's one of the most important issues facing the industry today (along with reg reform). From what I understand, some of our nation's 'mega' banks (and mid-sized regionals too) are now employing what's been described to me as "whole armies of workers" in the fight against buybacks. The job of these employees is to come up with evidence that proves, at the time the loan was sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac that it did indeed meet the underwriting guidelines of the day. If you have any information about this subject, comment at the end of this column or drop me a line at:
Meanwhile, one industry veteran told me that "60% of buyback claims are totally bogus" and, no, it wasn't Jeff Spicoli of 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' fame. (By the way, Jeff's best line in that movie was: "What Jefferson was saying was, Hey! You know, we left this England place 'cause it was bogus; so if we don't get some cool rules ourselves, pronto, we'll just be bogus too!" I'm not sure if Jeff was talking about the reg reform bill pending in the Senate but you get the message...
One vulture fund investor who I've known for years described all the reg reform ideas (the mortgages ones) as being akin to "baby proofing" America. Interesting analogy...
As for the Senate bill, NMN's Brian Collins' was covering the cavalcade of amendments extensively this past week. All his updates were available, in detail, to subscribers to our website:
If Sen. Claire McCaskill gets her way will there be a HECM market anymore? "While reverse mortgages are great for some seniors," she said on the Senate floor, "too many of our greatest generation are being hoodwinked by misleading advertisements and predatory lenders looking to make a buck." Reverse mortgages account for .001% of residential outstandings or even less. Darryl Hicks phone home...
Farm lenders take note, the Iowa house and multi-acre spread featured in the Kevin Costner movie "Field of Dreams" is up for sale. Farmers Don and Becky Lansing, the owners of the site near Dyersville, are selling. The asking price is a cool $5.4 million which makes it a "super jumbo" loan (I guess). Who will touch this baby? Will it wind up in a Redwood Trust MBS? Where's Mike Covino to broker this deal?...
WASHINGTON NEWS: The Treasury Department wants residential servicers receiving federal incentive payments for modifying troubled mortgages to sign an agreement certifying they are in compliance with the Making Home Affordable initiative's more than 800 requirements. That's right: 800. At this point, some servicers might say, "Why bother." Then again with potential income of $2,500 or more (per loan) they might put up with the hassle. Stay tuned.
DATA STUFF: The brand new edition of NMN's Annual Data Report is out. In the ADR you can find rankings on the top 100 lenders and servicers in 2009 with complete breakdowns on production channels and subservicing and subprime servicing. To order the ADR drop a line to:
SURVEY NOTICE No. 1: Our annual "Top Producer Survey" (a k a LO survey) is at
SURVEY NOTICE No. 2: It's survey time once again for sellers and servicers. Look for our annual survey in your computer mailbox or email:
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DATA NOTICE: National Mortgage News has all different data sets available for purchase including rankings and contact lists on the nation's top lenders and servicers. Send your requests for information to
THE LAST WORD: Author Saul Bellow on his fellow Americans: "Half of these are totally illiterate, thirty percent more are functionally illiterate, and the rest, while intellectually capable, are tremendously unwilling to go along."
