Originations

Alloya Corporate Federal Credit Union of Warrenville, Ill., the survivor of what was once Members United Corporate FCU, said it has signed a letter of intent to combine with Central Corporate Credit Union of Michigan, creating the nation's largest corporate with almost $5 billion in assets.

For the past few months, large players have had a lock on refinancing high LTV and underwater loans in their GSE portfolios. In a nutshell the megabanks could manually underwrite loans they controlled under Dec. 1 revisions made to the Home Affordable Refinancing Program.

Just over 2,300 years ago, a wise father hired the greatest scholar of his age to tutor his young son in the ways of the world. Aristotle spent the next few years instructing the young man in literature, architecture, music, politics and the art of warfare. Armed with this knowledge, the student, barely in his 20s, set out to conquer the world. It took him just 11 years.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is about to take another step forward in its efforts to write a series of rules to define "larger participants" in specific markets, including those in the consumer credit reporting business.

Over the last 10 years, $23.7-billion State Employees' Credit Union in Raleigh, N.C. has not had a single mortgage handed back to it by an investor due to poor underwriting.

In 1848, the discovery of gold in California proved to be one of the most significant events in U.S. history. The dream of striking it rich and reaping the benefits of copious finds held a strong allure for many adventurous risk takers. Today, investors armed with reams of data and metrics, and that same adventurous spirit, are looking at the foreclosure to rental property market with that same gleam in their eyes.

Through the first three quarters of 2011 The Golden 1 Credit Union in Sacramento, Calif. had by far the most mortgage originations of any CU in California and it is actively advertising for more.

William Mulrow on Wednesday began his tenure as chairman of the New York State Housing Finance Agency and the State of New York Mortgage Agency, two of the agencies included within New York State Homes and Community Renewal.

Mortgage originations today contain many of the same risk characteristics as found in years past, but Teresa Halleck said there is one important difference.

For those of you who have doubts about pointing your marketing efforts towards online and the social media, here are a few tidbits of data, courtesy of Experian Marketing Services' 2012 Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report.

The current vice president of the Hells Angels' Sonoma (CA) Chapter has to serve a year in jail and pay $130,000 in restitution to SunTrust Mortgage for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme.

Loan quality has been historically strong since the downturn, but it could be peaking. There are anecdotal signs that loan quality has been loosening slightly. Some say that since it has been so historically tight, that may not be a bad thing, but it could indicate the peak is nearing.

This week the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released correspondence clarifying (or rather correcting) the Federal Reserve Board's interpretation of the LO comp rules. In previous conference calls, various Federal Reserve employees stated that the LO comp rules prohibited profit of loans from having direct impact whatsoever on an LO's compensation.

The Federal Housing Administration is back-pedaling on its new underwriting requirements for borrowers with on-going credit disputes and the agency has delayed the effective date until July.

Non-agency MBS investors should look for bonds with smaller loan sizes in a structure that is levered to severity, said Amherst Securities Group analysts in a recent report.

Oftentimes, mortgage business owners have a confused picture of what marketing really is. They see it as some kind of gamble. Sometimes it pays off; other times it is a waste of money. But that just isn't the case. You can use marketing to consistently grow your mortgage income - and it has nothing to do with luck.

Jim Bane has a very simple business philosophy, one which has enabled him to be a successful mortgage loan originator.

A federal court has frozen assets at five California companies that are being investigated for trying to scam U.S. homeowners facing foreclosure. The Federal Trade Commission says it has opened an investigation into companies, which charged its customers up to $10,000 for legal advice and forensic audits.

Members of the Federal Home Loan Bank System are starting to take a new look at the old mortgage purchase programs that were developed back in the 1990s.

The annual Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance premium officially increase April 9 to 120 basis points for loans with terms greater than 15 years and loan-to-value ratios less than or equal to 95%.