Origination

Bill Petersohn, director of bulk acquisitions and capital market sales for Residential Capital Corp., Horsham, Pa., has resigned from the mortgage banker to take a job with an analytics firm. Mr. Petersohn is joining MCT Capital Trading, San Diego, as a regional director in charge of sales. Prior to his departure he managed ResCap's '3-D' correspondent program which involves ResCap/GMAC acquiring the servicing rights on mortgages that eventually are sold to Fannie Mae. Recently, according to sources familiar with the situation, ResCap eliminated smaller mortgage correspondents from the program. A ResCap spokeswoman said the 3-D program "has always been geared toward larger correspondents." She said Mr. Petersohn "is not a senior or executive level manager" at the company and his departure is "unrelated to changes made within the 3-D program." She declined to specify what those changes were.

Commercial banks will be big buyers of agency MBS this year and help keep mortgage rates in check after the Federal Reserve withdraws from the market, according to the head of securitization strategy at Barclays Capital. Managing director Ajay Rajadhyaksha said the banking sector is flush with cash and it normally starts buying securities as the economy comes out of recession. "I would expect $400 billion to $500 billion of buying from banks in securities -- primarily agency MBS in 2010," he told reporters. "I am not worried about mortgage-backed securities being bought," he added. After buying $1.25 trillion in Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae MBS over the past 15 months, the Fed is slated to exit the market at the end of this month. Speaking at a National Association of Business Economics conference in Washington, the Barclay's MBS strategist said mortgage rates could rise 50 basis points in the second quarter and another 50 bps by yearend. However, pension funds, mutual funds and insurance companies were big sellers of MBS in 2009 and they will probably be buyers this year. "Mortgage rates will rise but the backstop will come from the private sector," Mr. Rajadhyaksha said.

Two top officers in charge of the fast growing MetLife Home Loans, Memphis, have departed the bank-owned residential lender/servicer, National Mortgage News has learned. Leaving the company is Peter Makowiecki, a senior vice president at MetLife Bank who had responsibility for MLHL, and Jeffrey Brown, a vice president at the bank who played a key role in the firm's originations. Both men were on board at First Horizon Mortgage when its parent bank, First Tennessee Corp., sold most of the lender to MetLife almost two years ago. At the end of September, MLHL ranked 11th nationwide in originations with a growth rate of 456%, according to the Quarterly Data Report. A spokesman for MetLife in Rhode Island confirmed to NMN that the two men resigned from the company "effective immediately to pursue other interests." He declined to elaborate. The two men, who were based in Texas, could not be reached for comment. Mr. Brown is the son of Carl Brown who ran Carl I. Brown & Co. for many years before that nonbank was sold to First Tennessee back in 1995. "Jeff has been with them a long time," said one business associate. "At one point he was the head of all production."

Austin, Texas-based mortgage accounting vendor Mortgage Banking Solutions has merged with San Diego-based Abacus Accounting Services. Abacus offers bookkeeping services to mortgage banks in the western U.S. MBS now offers bookkeeping services in addition to their CFO2Go product suite. The technology can now fully support outsourced bookkeeping activity with remote secure servers.

Fidelity National Financial Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., has received an extension of its $1.1 billion unsecured revolving credit facility. The line's maturity date has been extended from Oct. 24, 2011 to March 5, 2013 and although the size was cut to $935 million, FNF has an option to increase the limit back to $1.1 billion. Pricing will be in a range of 110 to 190 basis points over Libor, based on FNF's senior debt ratings. Right now FNF has a Moody's rating of Baa3 and a Standard & Poor's rating of BBB-, making the current applicable margin 150 bps. The applicable margin will increase by 50 bps on Oct. 24, 2011. Financial covenants remain the same as in the previous credit facility, including minimum consolidated net worth and maximum indebtedness to capitalization ratio covenants. Bank of America Securities LLC, Wells Fargo Securities LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., and U.S. Bank NA acted as joint lead arrangers of the credit facility.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of Canadian housing starts climbed to 196,700 units in February from 185,400 units in January, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. Bob Dugan, chief economist at CMHC, said the volatile multifamily starts segment drove the increase. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of urban multifamily starts in Canada jumped 19.1% during the month while single-family starts inched up by just 0.5% during the period. The smaller rural start segment was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 17,600 for the month.

Restructuring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-and the political compromises that must occur to make it happen-could render the passage of such legislation next to impossible, according to a new report from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. Commenting on remarks made late last week by Rep. Barney Frank that investors in Fannie/Freddie securities should not assume that their holdings are guaranteed by the Treasury Department, KBW noted that the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee "had a busy day." Treasury quickly issued a statement, reiterating its financial commitment to the two. But in its report, KBW predicts that Democrats will lose more seats in the fall election, forcing Rep. Frank to compromise on GSE legislation next year. Several weeks ago the committee chairman said he wants to start from scratch on revamping the nation's housing finance system. KBW analyst Bruce Gardner notes that the undertaking is "monumental when one considers that such an effort would affect Fannie and Freddie, the capital markets, the banking system, mortgage bankers, mortgage insurers, Realtors, homebuilders and others."

The creation of an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency would not impair safety and soundness regulation of banks, according to a majority of business economists. A survey by the National Association of Business Economists found 54% of economists are dismissive of claims by the banking industry and their supporters in Congress that a CFPA would undermine S&S regulation. A quarter (25%) of the 203 economists believes passage of CFPA legislation would be detrimental to S&S. The House has passed a bill that would create a stand-alone agency with rulemaking and enforcement powers to stop abusive mortgage lending and credit card practices. Such a strong consumer protection agency has run into fierce opposition in the Senate where banking committee members are trying to wrap up negotiations on a massive financial regulatory reform bill. House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank told a meeting of minority real estate professionals that CFPA opponents seem to be arguing that consumer protection will hurt banks. "There are people who believe if the banks aren't able to treat consumers unfairly they can't survive," Rep. Frank said.

The Federal Housing Administration is extending the March 31 deadline for mortgage brokers to submit their audited financial statements by 30 days. FHA-approved brokers "must continue to comply with existing requirements for the submission of their annual certifications and renewal fees, but will be given until April 30 to submit audited financial statements," the Department of Housing and Urban Development said. HUD soon will issue a final rule requiring FHA-approved lenders to select the brokers they want to buy loans from and assume liability for their production. Brokers will no longer be required to go through an FHA approval process which entails the submission of annual financial statements. Meanwhile, the March 31 deadline is steadily approaching and HUD officials do not want brokers paying $8,000 to $15,000 for an unnecessary audit.

The Federal Housing Administration commissioner wants the nation's largest originators to loosen their underwriting standards, allowing more minorities to qualify for government-backed single-family loans. Many top ranked lenders voluntarily imposed a minimum 620 credit score in 2008 as subprime borrowers rushed to refinance into FHA loans. Commissioner David Stevens told minority real estate professionals that the lenders' action has improved the performance of FHA loans and reduced defaults. However, the commissioner is now urging lenders to consider borrowers with lower FICO scores. "The one thing I will tell you, the difference in approval rates for African-Americans and Latino borrowers between 580 and 620 is significant," Mr. Stevens said. The commissioner noted that FHA is taking several steps to reduce default risk. But the agency does not want to raise the FHA 3.5% downpayment requirement to 5%, despite congressional pressure. "If we had increased the downpayment to 5% we would severely impact the ability of a good family" to buy a home, he said. The FHA commissioner made his comments at a recent conference on minority home ownership.