What We're Hearing

So, is the new management group and "controlling" owners at PHH happy? Time will tell. The company just reported a $52 million loss for 3Q but says there's plenty of positive news out there: it has "uncommitted" warehouse facilities of $4.3 billion and it just secured what it calls a "major" new private label deal that could bring in $1.5 billion in new originations. (PHH is the nation's largest private label funder.) Its new president is Jerry Selitto, former CEO of DeepGreen Financial, a former player in the second lien market -- as in 80-10-10 loan structures. DeepGreen crashed and burned in early 2007. It was owned by Lightyear Capital -- an investment fund managed by Don Marron, a former Fannie Mae director who made his name at PaineWebber. (He was a director at the GSE from 2001 to 2006, during the height of its financial shenanigans.) It's amazing how few media reports on Messrs. Selitto and Marron have not mentioned the DeepGreen connection and what happened to the firm...