Origination

LAS VEGAS—Americans doing business in the Orient often use the backside of their business cards to print their information in the native tongue of the particular country where they are working. Japanese, perhaps, or maybe Mandarin.In the United States, mortgage brokers sometimes use the other side of their cards to ask for business, such as, “The greatest compliment you could pay me is a referral.”

It is a new world out there, and mortgage originators and managers who don’t adjust will find themselves in a new profession.If the fear of public speaking is the No. 1 dread for Americans, the fear of change might be No. 2.

Some of the underwriters in the private mortgage insurance industry have ramped things up another notch in the efforts to recapture market share from the Federal Housing Administration.Several firms, including Genworth, Radian and RMIC have announced they will accept appraisals for loans which originally had intended to have FHA insurance but for some reason are being switched to a conventional secondary market execution.

Its Mortgagee Review Board has fined WR Starkey Mortgage $223,000 for violations of Federal Housing Administration lending requirements, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development said it is awarding more than 500 housing counseling organizations with $73 million in grants for 2011, up 22% from this year.

New home sales rose 5.5% in November after a 10% slide in October that took sales down to record lows for the building industry.

Fitch Ratings has placed Whitney Holding Corp.'s ratings on Rating Watch Evolving status following the New Orleans-based bank’s merger agreement with Gulfport, Miss.-based Hancock Holding Company.

The average 30-year mortgage rate tracked in Freddie Mac’s latest weekly survey came in slightly lower than the previous week, ending an upward week-to-week trend seen in recent surveys.

Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded $1.7 billion in Washington Mutual-issued securities backed by first-lien, alternative-A credit, payment-option adjustable-rate mortgages with negative amortization.

David DiStaso has been given the title of chief financial officer at iStar Financial Inc., New York. He has been functioning as the company’s principal financial officer since April.