Originations

Cornerstone Mortgage Co., Houston, a $3 billion a year originator, is continuing its talks with banks and may be close to a deal, according to industry officials close to the situation.

Carrington Mortgage Services is ready to launch its wholesale loan production channel now that the Santa Ana, Calif.-based company has completed its purchase of American Home Equity Corp. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Radian Group Inc., Philadelphia, reported net income for the second quarter of $137 million, helped by widening spreads leading to a gain in fair value on its derivative portfolio of $194 million. One year prior, the company lost $475 million, due to a fair value charge of $588 million.

Equifax announced its acquisition of back-office processing, closing and post-closing service and technology provider DataVision Resources Tuesday.

DALLAS—While politicians continue to figure out what to do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal conservator of the mortgage companies is hard at work implementing new policies and practices to improve the government-sponsored enterprises for as long as they are still around, according to Patrick Lawler, chief economist and associate director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

The mortgage operations at Ally Financial Inc. lost $127 million for the second quarter due to its legacy portfolio, down from profits of $34 million in the first quarter and $230 million for the second quarter 2010.

I was riding the New York City Subway to work one recent morning, when a father and his approximately five-year-old son sat across from me.

Silvergate Bank, La Jolla, Calif., said its warehouse lending program funded over 1,000 residential mortgage loans totaling $267 million in the second quarter.

The 'on-again/off-again' sale process has started once again for Aurora Loan Services, the Colorado-based mortgage banking division of Aurora Bank FSB, according to industry officials.

Homeland Security Capital Corp., Arlington, Va., has made its second acquisition in the mortgage and settlement services space by buying Timios Inc., a nationwide provider of title and escrow services for $1.15 million, plus contingency payments of up to $1.35 million over the next 12 months.

In the wake of a political deal to solve the nation's debt ceiling crisis, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury fell to 2.7% Monday, which usually means mortgage rates are headed south as well.

DALLAS - As servicers continue to manage the deluge of distressed homeowners and nonperforming mortgages, short sales are becoming an effective loss mitigation strategy.

U.S. senior fixed-income investors are taking a more conservative view of cross asset credit conditions on the back of recent macroeconomic concerns, according to a Fitch Ratings fixed-income forum survey of fixed income professionals, conducted in June.

In a major defeat for the National Credit Union Administration, a federal judge Friday agreed to dismiss negligence charges brought by the federal regulator in a civil suit against 11 directors of the one-time $34 billion corporate credit union, all of them prominent figures in the credit union movement.

Texas Tech Federal Credit Union in Lubbock has chosen MRG's Miracle Online platform for its mortgage document preparation needs.

Arizona State CU has begun offering its members low-down payment, low-rate loans to buy homes currently owned by Fannie Mae, the Phoenix-based credit union said.

Here we are five months into this series, the Dentist Diaries. Time flies when you are having fun, but not when you are having dental work done, nor when you are working on a tough loan file. This month I will share with you about some "unintended consequences" in both cases.

CU Companies, a mortgage service organization owned by credit unions in the New Brighton, Minn. area, has launched a correspondent purchase program for member institutions.

State regulators fined Mortgage Access Corp., an affiliate of realty giant Weichert, $3 million for using unlicensed mortgage originators. The settlement covers 10 states.

When it comes to residential finance and the nation's megabanks, the second quarter was a case of "the bigger they are, the more they suffer" with glimmers of hope here and there.