Secondary markets

Gateway Mortgage Group, is looking to move into new markets by creating strategic partnerships with homebuilders and Realtors. It is also looking to expand on a traditional retail basis into Florida. And it has hired David Robinson to oversee both prongs.

We’ve been hearing complaints lately from loan brokers that some of their wholesalers have been telling them to “take a number” and wait if they bring a purchase-money mortgage to the underwriting window.

As originally designed, the Fed’s compensation rule tried to ensure that loan officers didn’t have any monetary incentives to steer borrowers into high-cost loans.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust, a fast-growing buyer of mortgages from correspondents—including jumbos—recently inked a deal to receive a $100 million repo line from Barclays Bank PLC.

Stewart Information Services Corp. saw its net earnings increase 319% from 2Q11, while First American Financial Corp. had its best title margins since 2005 as it earned $73 million, more than double the $32 million in 2Q11 profits.

New advances are providing technology to mortgage industry and secondary market participants that allows them to access detailed information about residential mortgage-backed securities.

Hudson City Bancorp plans to sell more of its production into the secondary market going forward.

Now that Wells Fargo has tossed its wholesale division into the deep dark sea, the question becomes: who’s next among the megabanks to leave?

Moody’s calculates loan-to-value ratios for commercial mortgage-backed security debt transactions from more of a credit perspective.

Federal Reserve Board Gov. Sarah Bloom Raskin urged regulators to narrow a proposed exemption to the Volcker Rule, saying it may allow banks to avoid compliance with the ban on proprietary trading.

By now you’ve read the stories on the National Mortgage News website about private equity sniffing around the mortgage industry the past two years – and the chatter about some firm with $1 billion to spend. We don’t yet know the name of that fund but it’s interesting gossip nonetheless.

At least two bidders remain for the $30.8 billion of Freddie Mac mortgage servicing rights once owned by the now-defunct Taylor, Bean & Whitaker.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has hired a consulting firm to create contingency plans for taking Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Bank system into receivership.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wants to level the playing field so that all mortgage loan officers, whether they work at a bank or a mortgage brokerage, undergo similar training and meet the same standards for character, fitness and financial responsibility.

Mortgage brokers and bankers have been waiting anxiously for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to issue its loan officer compensation rule. This is the rule where the agency convened a ‘Small Business’ panel in the spring to weigh in on compensation and lender education issues. Needless to say, few in the industry came away happy with what was told to them by the agency.

Competition is heating up in the mortgage market as more lenders increase their production capacity, according to the chief financial officer of Fifth Third Bancorp.

Tom Wind, the executive VP of residential and consumer lending at EverBank and an industry veteran whose mortgage banking experience goes back over 20 years, believes the jumbo loan market is in growth mode. Overall housing market improvements and loan limit changes have opened the door to more growth, he said. “The jumbo business out there is starting to rebuild.

SunTrust Banks reported mortgage production income of $103 million for the second quarter, compared with $63 million in 1Q12 and a mere $4 million in 2Q11.

Cardinal Financial Corp. earned $10.2 million in the second quarter, with its mortgage banking division contributing net income of $4.4 million.

Stonegate Mortgage Corp. has hired Flagstar veteran Paul Wyner as senior vice president/national sales manager in charge of third-party residential lending.