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December 21, 2007

Top Originators Q3 07

Posted by S. Germain at 08:41 AM | Comments (0)

First American LoanPerformance Releases October 2007 House Price Index

First American LoanPerformance announced the release of its October 2007 LoanPerformance Home Price Index (HPI).

The LoanPerformance HPI provides a comprehensive set of monthly home price indices and median sales prices covering 7,451 ZIP codes, 956 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSA) and 662 counties located in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The indices, which are the most comprehensive available in the industry, are reported to clients five weeks after each month ends.

Read the entire story here.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:39 AM | Comments (0)

Lender Lead Solutions Announces LIBOR 85 Margin Reverse Mortgage

Lender Lead Solutions, a comprehensive reverse mortgage services company, announced today an expanded LIBOR 85 product offering within its Flex Margin Advantage product line. The LIBOR 85 basis point margin pays a premium to the broker and provides increased liquidity to the consumer.

The Flex Margin Advantage product suite provides brokers with the ability to structure rates and loan terms on monthly HECM reverse mortgage loans in order to better fit the needs of their customers. Lender Lead Solutions’ LIBOR Flex Margin Advantage product suite offers margins from 75 to 200 basis points on LIBOR based HECM reverse mortgages.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:29 AM | Comments (0)

Resolve and Central Tax Streamline Property Tax Management with Outsourced Solution

Resolve Corporation, a Canadian business leader in business process outsourcing, and Central Tax, an industry outsourcer specializing in property tax solutions, announced today that they have formed a strategic alliance to pursue the market for outsourced property tax solutions in the financial services sector.

There are currently over 2.5 million property tax accounts being administered by Canadian financial institutions on behalf of their mortgage customers, representing a significant opportunity for outsourcing. The combined offering builds upon Central Tax's innovative tax monitoring and administration system, which alleviates many of the challenges involved in the setup and the overall management of the lender's property tax account.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:25 AM | Comments (0)

Loanbright and Ellie Mae Enter Into Marketing and Technology Partnership

Loanbright, a leading provider of internet lead generation to mortgage brokers and loan officers and Ellie Mae have entered into a marketing and technology partnership. The partnership was designed to give Encompass users a simple, affordable and easy way to purchase locally targeted sales leads from prospective borrowers looking to purchase a home.

Locally targeted marketing continues to grow as a more effective marketing strategy for mortgage professionals and Loanbright's SelectLead Program offers mortgage brokers and loan officers the opportunity to connect with prospective home buyers in their local markets.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:23 AM | Comments (0)

Informative Research to Launch OriginatorDirect(TM) Mortgage Application

A new Web-based mortgage information application scheduled for release early next year promises to give credit reporting agencies and wholesale lenders an alternative to costly technology connections and unwieldy "out of the box" software packages.

OriginatorDirect(TM), developed by California-based credit information provider Informative Research, will enable mid-sized, or "tier-2" credit reporting agencies (CRAs) to access and share advanced credit reporting technology, as well as other risk reduction tools, without paying licensing fees or altering workflow. The application will also allow lenders to connect to a larger broker audience through a network of credit reporting agency users.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:20 AM | Comments (0)

Weltman, Weinberg & Reis Merge Title Teams

The law firm of Weltman, Weinberg & Reis (WWR), which provides default services, as well as title services through two affiliated agencies, announced Friday that its title agencies will be merged into one unit under one name—Thoroughbred Title Agency Inc.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:17 AM | Comments (0)

MRG Offers Loan Modification Contracts

MRG Document Technologies (MRG) is now offering loan modification agreements to financial companies who are involved in a slew of loss mitigation efforts.

The company says the “modified agreements” created and provided by MRG allow those involved in the loss mitigation process to change the terms of a distressed borrower's loan without violating federal mandates or statutes governing mortgage loans.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:16 AM | Comments (0)

Default Lines: The New Math of Credit Scores

The three major credit bureaus could implement Fair Isaac Corp.'s new credit scoring system as early as spring 2008. The new system, FICO 08, was developed in response to lenders' demands for a better way to gauge borrower risk amid rising mortgage and auto loan delinquencies. FICO 08 continues to assign consumers scores between 300 and 850 and take into consideration their debt loads, payment histories, recent accounts and inquiries, type of credit and length of credit history; but it now will give higher scores to consumers making timely payments on different types of loans and lower scores to those who have used much of their available credit or have multiple delinquent accounts.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:09 AM | Comments (0)

Home Building, Bids for Permits Continue to Free Fall

Residential construction activity skidded to an annual pace of 1.187 million units in November, down 3.7 percent from the previous month and off 24.2 percent from November 2006. Single-family home building recorded its eighth straight monthly decline, sliding 5.5 percent to an annual pace of 829,000 and marking a 16-year low. After a 13-percent nosedive last year, National Association of Home Builders expects residential activity to sink 26 percent this year and 19 percent next year, with a rebound anticipated in 2009.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:07 AM | Comments (0)

Banks to Refinance Home Loans

Citizens Financial Group, Sovereign Bancorp, TD Banknorth, Webster Financial Corp. and Bank of America will participate in a Federal Reserve Bank of Boston plan to refinance subprime loans into mortgages with fixed interest rates. While Bank of America's financial commitment to the program has not yet been decided, each of the other four participating banks will earmark $25 million for the initiative.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:06 AM | Comments (0)

Fed to Unveil Home Mortgage Plan

The Federal Reserve is expected on Dec. 19 to propose new subprime mortgage lending rules that could prevent lenders from penalizing borrowers who pay their loans off early and force lenders to make sure borrowers have enough money to pay for taxes and insurance. Fed policymakers also want to restrict loans that do not require proof of a borrower's income and establish new standards for determining an applicant's ability to repay a home loan. The new protections for subprime borrowers could be finalized in 2008 and, if adopted, would allow Chairman Ben Bernanke to place more of an imprint on the central bank's regulatory powers.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:05 AM | Comments (0)

Senate Approves Two Mortgage Bills

A pair of bills intended to help subprime mortgage borrowers were passed by the Senate on Dec. 14. One measure would revamp the Federal Housing Administration loan program. While the House version of the legislation is more far-reaching because it would permit higher loan limits and zero down payments as well as institute risk-based premiums, a compromise should be quick, according to Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. The other bill would exempt mortgage debt forgiven via modification or refinance from income taxes.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:02 AM | Comments (0)

December 14, 2007

Option One Portfolio

Posted by S. Germain at 08:56 AM | Comments (0)

Latest Issue of First American LoanPerformance MarketPulse Report Features Wachovia Capital Markets Study

First American LoanPerformance announced that the latest issue of its MarketPulse report is available for download at www.loanperformance.com.

This latest report features a new whitepaper entitled, “Voluntary Prepayments in the ABX” by John McElravey, vice president, asset-backed securities (ABS) research for Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC.

Read the entire story here.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:48 AM | Comments (0)

Citizens Republic Outsourcing to PHH

Citizens Republic Bancorp, Flint, Mich., has announced that it will use PHH Mortgage, Mt. Laurel, N.J., for certain outsourced functions in the mortgage originations process. PHH will provide Citizens Republic with mortgage loan processing, servicing of new mortgage originations, certain secondary-market functions, and other mortgage-related loan origination services

Posted by S. Germain at 08:43 AM | Comments (0)

House Panel OKs Bankruptcy Bill

The House Judiciary Committee approved a narrowly targeted bankruptcy bill by a 17-15 vote that would give subprime and nontraditional mortgage borrowers facing foreclosure one last chance to get their mortgage restructured so they can stay in their homes. Only homeowners who have received a foreclosure notice could seek a Chapter 13 restructuring. Under the bill, bankruptcy judges could waive prepayment penalties and reduce the mortgage amount to the fair market value and reduce the interest rate to a conventional rate plus a risk premium. These restructurings would be limited to subprime and nontraditional mortgages originated from 2000 through the date of enactment of the legislation. The Mortgage Bankers Association and the American Bankers Association oppose the bill.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:40 AM | Comments (0)

IL Probing Countrywide Option ARM, B&C Loans

Investigators for the state of Illinois have issued what one official calls "extensive" subpoenas to Countrywide Financial Corp. as part of a far-reaching probe into its origination of subprime and payment-option ARMs. Debra Hagan, chief of the state's consumer protection division, told MortgageWire that investigators are scrutinizing subprime and payment-option adjustable-rate mortgages that Countrywide funded on a retail basis and through loan brokers.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:39 AM | Comments (0)

Endeca and IBM to Offer Information Access and Analysis Solution for Credit Risk Management

Endeca Technologies, Inc. announced it is working with IBM to introduce Risk Insight, a new solution built on the Endeca Information Access Platform that provides lending financial institutions unprecedented transparency into risk portfolio dynamics. Risk Insight helps companies to better manage portfolio risk and take action quickly and effectively when necessary.

Traditional risk-management tools provide only limited support of ad-hoc investigation, identification of risk concentrations, and proactive portfolio management. Risk Insight provides chief credit officers (CCO) with an interactive dashboard of key portfolio performance indicators that are dynamically summarized and visually presented to promote the identification of drivers and concentrations of portfolio risk.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:27 AM | Comments (0)

Alliance Title Closing Stuns Employees, Real Estate Firms

Job cuts are rampant in the title insurance industry, and California's Alliance Title Co. is the latest provider to fall victim to the trend. The escrow and title firm abruptly shut down its operations on Dec. 13, laying off all of its employees—numbering in the hundreds—with not even a day's notice. News of the closure dismayed not only Alliance Title's employees but also the realty companies that had deals pending with the insurer—estimated to be at about 500 transactions.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:26 AM | Comments (0)

FNC introduces new product

FNC Inc. has introduced Collateral Headquarters, a solution designed for regional and community lenders.

Collateral Headquarters, a desktop tool designed for banks, credit unions and appraisal management companies, streamlines mortgage processing by automating appraisal ordering, assignment, tracking and review, all from a single, centralized platform.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:24 AM | Comments (0)

Wachovia doubles 4Q loan-loss provision to $1B

The company said it is doubling its expected loan-loss provision for the fourth quarter to $1 billion in excess of charge-offs. Wachovia previously estimated a loan-loss provision of between $500 million and $600 million because of loans turning sour in its mortgage-loan portfolio. Wachovia has seen loans turn bad in several areas in California and Florida.

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, securities backed by loans dropped in value in the past two months at a rate equal to the decline in the third quarter, when Wachovia reported loan losses of $1.34 billion.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:22 AM | Comments (0)

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services to Help Mortgage Servicers Implement Loan Modification Programs

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services announced today the company can now help mortgage servicers modify distressed subprime borrowers' adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) to make payments more affordable and avoid costly foreclosures.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services helps servicers make such modifications rapidly through a standard yet customizable set of documents and packages that enable servicers to freeze the interest rate of their borrowers' existing ARMs for a specified period or modify those ARMs to fixed-rate or interest-only fixed-rate loans.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:21 AM | Comments (0)

Washington Mutual ups stock offering

The Seattle-based thrift (said it would offer 3 million shares of convertible preferred stock and expects the offering to generate total proceeds of $3 billion and net proceeds of $2.9 billion. That's up from the $2.5 billion in total proceeds that the company on Monday said it hoped to generate from the stock offering.

Washington Mutual Inc. said it would contribute $1 billion of the net proceeds to Washington Mutual Bank, its principal bank subsidiary, with the rest going to the holding company for general corporate purposes. The company said it expects the offering to close on or about Dec. 17.

Along with the stock offering, Washington Mutual on Monday announced deep layoffs in its mortgage business, a dividend cut and plans for higher-than-expected loan losses.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:20 AM | Comments (0)

Citigroup says it will absorb SIV assets

Citigroup said late Thursday that it will take $49 billion worth of assets from several investment entities that have been damaged by the subprime mortgage meltdown and add that to its own balance sheet - a move that could cut deeply into the Wall Street giant's capital base.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:19 AM | Comments (0)

Demand for Electronic Signatures Fuels Strong Growth for DocuSign in 2007

DocuSign has seen a dramatic rise in the adoption of its eSignature service during 2007. The company’s sales have more than quadrupled during 2007. DocuSign’s eSignature service has delivered more than 6.4 million signature events, a 300 percent increase over 2006. Currently the company has more than 1,800 customers and over 300,000 users who are revolutionizing the process to get documents signed and executed.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:16 AM | Comments (0)

Credit Communications, Market Kinetix Offer Mortgage Action Plan

Credit Communications Inc. (CCI), a nationwide credit reporting firm for the mortgage industry, has implemented Market Kinetix's Mortgage Action Plan credit analysis solution, a patent-pending Internet-accessible software tool designed to help mortgage brokers help their borrowers secure loans.

After the mortgage originator gets a borrower's credit report, he or she clicks on the Mortgage Action Plan option from within Certified Credit's Web site to get information on the fastest method for achieving a target credit score,

Posted by S. Germain at 08:14 AM | Comments (0)

C-BASS LLC Completes Sale Of Litton Loan Servicing

Credit-Based Asset Servicing and Securitization LLC (C-BASS), headquartered in New York, has successfully completed the sale of Litton Loan Servicing to Goldman Sachs. The sale of Litton was a key step for C-BASS to reach a long-term agreement with its secured and unsecured creditors on Nov.13, the company says. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:11 AM | Comments (0)

ValuFinders Inc. Expands Database of Appraisers

ValuFinders Inc., a valuation services provider, has expanded its national database of registered appraisers—which is appropriately titled Appraisal CONCIERGE—to include 9,000 registered appraisal professionals. As a testament to the company's growth and success, ValuFinders, for the fourth year in a row, has announced the renewal of its contract with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Posted by S. Germain at 08:09 AM | Comments (0)

ProVest Forges Alliance with Process Server Toolbox

ProVest has partnered with Database Services Inc.—the company behind the Process Server's Toolbox—to better deal with rapidly increasing foreclosure volumes through faster technology and technology interfacing.

The Process Server's Toolbox, which is described as a product that provides “an interface that reduces reporting time and data entry for process servers facing record-high foreclosure volumes,” will in combination with ProVest's TRACKER management system improve the accuracy of reporting and increase the speed of information delivery.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:07 AM | Comments (0)

Senate Democrats Propose New Restrictions on Mortgage Lenders

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn. introduced the Homeownership Preservation and Protection Act of 2007—which would ban prepayment penalties and yield spread premiums, require mortgage lenders to only make loans that borrowers are able to repay and force loan servicers to implement loss mitigation strategies before initiating foreclosures on homes. MBA Chairman Kieran Quinn said the bill's provisions "concern us deeply" because they would also require mortgage lenders and brokers to make loans in the best interest of borrowers as well as expose investors in mortgage-backed securities to lawsuits by individual borrowers.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:51 AM | Comments (0)

Panel Looks at Reverse Mortgages

According to statistics, U.S. seniors took out 85,639 reverse mortgages last year—up from 48,493 in 2005. However, some experts continue to warn about the risks associated with this product—which targets homeowners aged 62 and older—as well as the sometimes predatory sales practices and excessive fees.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:49 AM | Comments (0)

Fed Cuts Rate but Dismays Wall Street

The central bank cut both the federal funds rate and the discount rate by a quarter of a point, lowering the interest rates to 4.25 percent and 4.75 percent, respectively. The move did not please many on Wall Street who were hoping for a bigger cut, such as a reduction by at least a half-percent for the discount rate, and investors responded by sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average down by nearly 300 points. The Fed said it was still concerned about inflation pressures from high energy and food prices.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:48 AM | Comments (0)

Mortgage Losses Prompt WaMu to Cut More Jobs

Amid mounting mortgage losses, Washington Mutual Inc. has decided to lower its dividend by 73 percent to 15 cents a share, pink-slip 3,150 mortgage and corporate support employees and raise $2.5 billion in new capital. The savings and loan, which is in the process of closing 190 of 336 mortgage offices, has long ranked as one of the nation's biggest home mortgage lenders.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:47 AM | Comments (0)

New Buyer of Distressed Loans

G8 Capital LLC has been founded by former MoneyLine Lending Services Inc. CEO Evan Gentry to purchase the mortgage portfolios of struggling lenders and financial institutions. With an initial private-sector investment of $50 million, G8 Capital will purchase $3 million to $25 million portfolios for 40 cents to 75 cents on the dollar.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:46 AM | Comments (0)

Freddie, Fed Try to Limit Damage

In an effort to minimize immediate credit losses, Freddie Mac has instituted a policy to purchase fewer delinquent mortgages packaged into securities—a move that will be mimicked by Fannie Mae. There are concerns that such a move simply alters the accounting treatment of overdue loans and only postpones credit losses, but a Freddie Mac spokesperson insists that investors still will be compensated. The government-sponsored enterprises also began imposing surcharges on loans to borrowers with credit scores under 680 and less than 30 percent equity.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is gearing up to propose regulations that would prohibit prepayment penalties on subprime mortgages and mandate that property tax and insurance be added to the monthly mortgage payments.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:44 AM | Comments (0)

Big Banks Scale Back Plan to Aid in Debt Crisis

On Dec. 10, following a month of false starts, a new superfund created by banks to keep the housing-related debt crisis from getting worse will start raising money from financial institutions. However, this new entity's role is already being questioned by several of the nation's biggest banks, with Citigroup formulating a separate rescue plan and HSBC and others taking steps to solve its problems internally. Consequently, the new superfund—which was never designed to rescue troubled structured investment vehicles, or SIVs, only to delay their day of reckoning—is looking more and more irrelevant.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:42 AM | Comments (0)

December 07, 2007

Existing Home Sales Oct. 07

Posted by S. Germain at 08:58 AM | Comments (0)

Tyron W. Miller Named Chief Operating Officer of First American First Lien Outsourcing

First American First Lien Outsourcing announced that Tyron (Ty) W. Miller has been named chief operating officer.

Miller, who joined First American in September 2007, will be responsible for management and oversight of First American’s first lien outsourcing and technology product companies, which include First American National Default Outsourcing, First American Loss Mitigation Services, First American LoanStar Trustee Services, First American National Claims Outsourcing and First American Default Technologies. In addition, he will lead new product and services development, client support and operations for First American’s end-to-end suite of default outsourcing services.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:54 AM | Comments (0)

FirstClose Offers First American CoreLogic's Services

FirstClose, a company that provides solutions related to mortgage settlement services, has agreed to utilize two First American CoreLogic solutions to help sales agents, resellers, credit unions and mortgage lenders better deal with their growing REO portfolios.

As part of the agreement, FirstClose agents will have access to ValuePoint4 Default—an AVM tool that offers property valuations on distressed homes—and Property Verification Reports, which provide clients with property photos.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:53 AM | Comments (0)

Elise Luckham Joins The First American Corporation as Vice President, Director of Corporate Real Estate

The First American Corporation has announced the appointment of Elise Luckham as vice president, director of corporate real estate. Bringing more than 19 years of corporate real estate experience to her new position, Luckham will be responsible for developing strategies to optimize First American’s real estate assets.

Prior to joining First American, Luckham served as vice president, corporate services for New Century Mortgage, where she oversaw a real estate portfolio of 360 buildings totaling approximately 3 million square feet. She also has served as vice president, corporate real estate for Bank of America and as manager, administrative services for Mitsubishi Motors Credit.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:52 AM | Comments (0)

First Canadian Title Unveils Lender-Lawyer Connect Mortgage Platform

First Canadian Title is revolutionizing the way in which mortgages are processed through the introduction of a no-cost technology solution that allows lenders and lawyers to collaborate in real-time. Lender-Lawyer Connect™ provides a user-friendly platform that transforms mortgage closings from a compartmentalized series of starts and stops into an integrated, open and dynamic process offering greater control and efficiency.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:50 AM | Comments (0)

Partnership Creates a One-Stop-Shop for Agents and Brokers to Market Themselves (Fidelity)

Fidelity Assets announced a strategic marketing partnership with Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions for a one-stop-shop for real estate professionals who wish to equip themselves with a complete Internet marketing solution. Through its rDesk suite of products, FNRES provides agents and brokers with leading-edge real estate software, including configurable, feature-rich agent and broker Web sites and a complete set of productivity tools that help capture, nurture, and convert leads.

Fidelity Assets complements FNRES’ Web site offerings with expert and full-service search engine optimization and marketing products and services, including coaching sessions on online marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns on Google, and business listing distribution to all the leading local search engines and business directories.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:48 AM | Comments (0)

LandAmerica Becomes First Non-Russian Insurer to Cover Title Risks in Russia

LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc. announces that it is the first non-Russian company to issue a title insurance policy related to a real estate transaction in Russia. LandAmerica covered the title risks for Baltic Property Trust's (BPT) acquisition of a major shopping center in the Moscow region. BPT is headquartered in Copenhagen.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:46 AM | Comments (0)

LandAmerica Achieves Microsoft Certified Partner Designation

LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc. has earned the designation of Microsoft Certified Partner. In meeting the stringent set of criteria necessary for achieving this designation from Microsoft, LandAmerica offers customers the peace of mind of knowing they will benefit from the highest levels of technical expertise, strategic thinking and hands-on skills.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:44 AM | Comments (0)

CBC Companies Enhances Suite of Fraud Prevention Tools With Addition of DataVerify

CBC Companies has added to its family of companies, DataVerify, a provider of mortgage risk assessment and fraud prevention systems. DataVerify's solutions automate most of the data validation steps in the lending process, increasing efficiencies, performance, pull throughs and controls, while reducing approval and processing timeframes. Mortgage lenders benefit from DataVerify's ability to successfully predict large mortgage losses early on in the origination process.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:39 AM | Comments (0)

ISGN Technologies Acquires Inuva

ISGN Technologies Ltd. has acquired Inuva, an India-based provider of information processing, business process outsourcing and application software consulting to the mortgage banking and real estate finance industry.

According to ISGN, this acquisition adds mortgage-specific knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) capabilities. Inuva’s KPO services include loan production and post-closing, title closing and settlement, mortgage servicing and secondary market services.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:10 AM | Comments (0)

Clear Capital Tracks At-Risk Properties During Disasters

Clear Capital recently used its Disaster Tracking Service (DTS) to generate daily footprints of the S. California wildfires and obtained data daily on fire boundaries and the direction of travel. The DTS engine then tabulated USGS and MODIS data to produce a conservative geo-coordinate outline of the fires.

Clear Capital next delivered relevant information to customers and provided them with the option of ordering Clear Capital Post Disaster Inspection reports (PDIs) to obtain a timely inspection of the properties and neighborhood condition.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:07 AM | Comments (0)

Veros Updates AVM Testing Policies

Veros Real Estate Solutions has updated its automated valuation model (AVM) testing policies for its VeroVALUE AVM product. The company says its testing policies are designed to ensure open communication and the transfer of transparent and accurate information between all parties.

Veros asserts the understanding and proper prioritization of critical test data, such as the definition and calculation of accuracy, confidence score correlation to accuracy, ranking functions, gross hit rates and effective hit rates.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:06 AM | Comments (0)

Mortgage Contracting Services Adds Quality Assurance Division

Mortgage Contracting Services is taking its property preservation and inspection services to another level with the addition of a new internal quality assurance department.

“While we have always had a comprehensive quality control program, in today's environment, we felt it was necessary to create a new department dedicated solely to monitoring and benchmarking our processes and procedures,” said Allan Martin, CEO of MCS.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:03 AM | Comments (0)

MBA Survey: Delinquency Rate Hits Record High

The MBA's National Delinquency Survey shows the U.S. delinquency rate on one-to-four unit residential properties increasing 47 basis points between the second and third quarter of 2007 making 5.59-percent of all loans officially “delinquent” during the third quarter.

According to the latest statistics, subprime adjustable-rate mortgages account for only 6.8-percent of the outstanding loan population, but still account for 43-percent of all foreclosure starts recorded during the third quarter.

Posted by S. Germain at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)

Bush Wins Agreement to Freeze Mortgages

Major mortgage lenders have agreed to lock in interest rates for five years on loans made to financially troubled homeowners who obtained adjustable-rate subprime mortgages between Jan. 1, 2005, and July 31, 2007. The deal with the Bush administration represents a compromise between mortgage firms and banks that wanted to freeze rates for one or two years and banking regulators who wanted seven years. Mortgage lenders such as Countrywide Financial, big banks such as Citigroup and nonprofit groups as well as Republicans and Democrats all support the agreement.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:57 AM | Comments (0)

Wachovia, WaMu, Deutsche Bank Lead Multifamily Lenders

Wachovia, Washington Mutual Bank and Deutsche Bank Commercial Real Estate were the leading multifamily lenders in the $138 billion multifamily lending market for 2006. Wachovia was the largest multifamily lender closing 1,465 multifamily loans totaling $16.1 billion with an average loan size of $11 million. Washington Mutual Bank and Deutsche Bank made multifamily lending investments at $9.2 billion and $6.3 billion, respectively. The report, which focuses on apartment buildings with five or more units, also indicated an average loan size of $2.7 million based on 50,959 total loan originations.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:54 AM | Comments (0)

H&R Block Scraps Mortgage Arm (Option One)

H&R Block plans to shutter the operations of Option One Mortgage now that its deal to sell the mortgage-lending unit to Cerberus Capital Management has collapsed. The Kansas City-based tax preparer will lay off about 620 workers, close three offices and take a $75 million restructuring charge. Cerberus was to pay $300 million less than Option One's net asset value, which stood at $1.1 billion in July; but the problems in the mortgage market led to attempts to renegotiate the deal over the past several months.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:52 AM | Comments (0)

Home Equity Tapped Out

Consumer spending financed through home equity loans rose every year from 1995 to 2005; and although data is not available for 2006, the trend is believed to have continued last year. However, banks are said to be pulling back on underwriting this year; and Freddie Mac estimates that only $60 billion in cash was taken out of homes in the third quarter, down 26 percent from the previous three-month period.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:50 AM | Comments (0)

Reinsurance Loss-Share Pacts: Next Pain Point

Mortgage lenders increasingly forge loss-sharing agreements with mortgage insurers as a means of boosting revenue, and the weak mortgage market has increased the likelihood of payouts. Countrywide Financial Corp., for instance, had reinsured $109.5 billion of the mortgages it services by the end of the third quarter, with reinsurance arrangements accounting for 5 percent of its pretax net income in 2006. Though the lender stands to lose upwards of $1 billion, it has set aside just $128.2 million for reinsurance losses, down 17.9 percent from the end of 2006. MGIC Investment Corp. anticipates reinsurance payouts of $500 million to $1 billion on mortgages written since last year, and such losses would occur over several quarters.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:48 AM | Comments (0)

U.S. Expands Scrutiny of Home Lenders

Countrywide Financial Corp. and GMAC Mortgage Corp. are among the lenders and servicers under investigation by the Justice Department's U.S. Trustee Program, which alleges that they are inflating amounts owed by borrowers who have filed bankruptcy in an effort to avoid or delay foreclosure. While the U.S. Trustee Program cannot impose fines on lenders or servicers, it can request sanctions from bankruptcy courts for failing to adhere to the Bankruptcy Code, fraud investigations by the Federal Trade Commission and standing objections to creditor's claims that would force them to provide more information to prove claims against homeowners.

Posted by S. Germain at 07:45 AM | Comments (0)