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Mortgage Industry News Headlines
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Last Updated Friday, January 05, 2007 05:17 PM CST
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ING Adding Mortgage Jobs
ING DIRECT plans to nearly triple its mortgage staff this year, the company told MortgageDaily.com in an e-mail statement. About 400 jobs are up for grabs. The new positions will mostly encompass underwriting, quality assurance, training and sales.
RMBS Investors Win N.C. Case
A North Carolina couple was charged $5,226 in closing costs on a $45,000 second mortgage in 1997. They filed a class action lawsuit claiming they were charged excessive loan origination fees and a usurious interest rate. But the state's supreme court affirmed a lower court decision not to hear the case against an out-of-state trust.
Repurchases Stinging Subprime Sector
Accredited Home Lenders saw its repurchases jump to nearly $52 million in the third quarter of last year, a senior executive said in a recent conference call. "We are managing it aggressively," he said. Positive activity at H&R Block subsidiaries "was overshadowed by the impact of recent increases in mortgage loan repurchases" at its Option One Mortgage Corp. unit, the company's CEO said in a recent statement.
Mortgage Employment Weakens
The number of mortgage jobs decreased to 504,100 in November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The latest figures were worse than the prior month. Nonfarm employment increased by 167,000 in December, the agency announced.
'06 Foreclosures Climb
The number of housing foreclosures rose sharply nationwide during 2006, Default Research announced. The foreclosure service noted it processed more than 250,000 pre-foreclosures in 2006. And, "you can expect to see the foreclosure rate to continue to increase in 2007," said the company's president and chief executive in the statement.
Apps Strengthen
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.18%, according to Freddie Mac's latest survey. Meanwhile, half of the 100 mortgage industry bankers, brokers and individuals surveyed by Bankrate.com expect mortgage rates to be relatively unchanged. The overall volume of mortgage applications improved by about 4% for the week ending Dec. 29, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.
MTA, LIBOR Higher
The Monthly Treasury Average was 4.93% in December, according to Federal Reserve data. The index was higher than the prior month. The 6-month LIBOR also rose from November, according to Fannie Mae data.
Layoffs as Unit Closes
Preferred Advantage was closed down, a spokesman for parent National City told MortgageDaily.com. Less than 50 employees were laid off as a result, he said. The unit was going to be sold, but that deal fell through.
Start Rate Discounts Climb
Mortgage bankers enticed ARM borrowers by offering lower initial interest rates during 2006, according to Freddie Mac's latest annual ARM survey of prime loans. The survey was conducted in December. Freddie said the discount averaged 2.3% last year for conventional, conforming 1-year Treasury-indexed ARMs.
RMBS Activity Climbs
U.S. RMBS issuance was about $573.4 trillion in 2006, according to Thomson Financial data. Last year was up from 2005, Thomson reported. The number of issues was up about 60 year over year.
Nonprime to be Hardest Hit
Delinquencies and losses have begun to trend upward, Fitch Ratings said in a recent outlook. The poor performance is expected to rise further this year, the agency said. The potential impact of the housing correction will be more acute in the subprime mortgage sector, according to Fitch.
MI Volume Off
Primary insurance on one- to four-family conventional mortgages originated in November amounted to $17.8 billion, the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America announced. Mortgage insurance volume was off from October, the group reported. But policies were better than a year earlier.
Mortgage Shakeups
Citigroup Inc. recently agreed with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to continue to strengthen risk-management practices. Greater Atlantic Financial Corp. said it plans to restate financial statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for periods from 2004 to 2006. The Office of Federal Housing and Enterprise Oversight announced that Fannie Mae's restated results show the company was significantly undercapitalized for fourth quarters 2002 and 2003.
MLN Dumps Brokers
Mortgage Lenders Network USA Inc. is currently involved in "strategic negotiations" over its wholesale origination platform, according to a spokesperson. "We have determined that MLN needs to pause from wholesale broker originations," said the company's president in an announcement. MLN will continue to run its servicing operations and its retail franchises, he said.
COFI Climbs
After decreasing for the first time in 29 months, the 11th District Cost of Funds Index started up again. COFI was 4.36 percent during November, the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco reported Friday. A year earlier, the index was lower.
Weak Industry Forecast
The CEOs of Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo & Co. spoke at a recent a Goldman Sachs conference. One noted that mortgage banking is currently giving investors a "lousy" return. The other noted loan volume will continue to decline.
Fannie Tightens IO Guidelines
Fannie Mae announced it will treat "interest-only" as a feature rather than a product. Among the changes the secondary lender will be requiring is for IO borrowers to be qualified at a fully-indexed rate. In addition, Fannie said borrowers must also be qualified using a fully amortizing payment amount.
Layered Alt-A Performance Down
"Non-agency performance worsened considerably in 2006," UBS said in a recent report. In general, 2006 vintage performance is significantly worse than 2003-05 vintages, except for prime fixed-rate loans. But credit deterioration is more pronounced for Alt-A mortgages and ARMs, UBS said.
Stewart Sues Brokers
Stewart Title has sued more than two dozen people, including several QuoteMeARate.com brokers. The title insurer alleges the brokers participated in a mortgage fraud scheme that resulted in more than $3 million in losses. QMAR went out of business earlier this year.
ABN AMRO Layoffs
ABN AMRO announced Thursday it will eliminate five percent of its North American business unit's staff next year. Approximately 900 employees will be involved in the reduction. A company spokesman confirmed to MortgageDaily.com there are "certainly" mortgage jobs involved in the reduction.
Mortgage Market Weaker
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.18%, Freddie Mac reported in its latest mortgage survey. The 30-year was higher than a week earlier. The Mortgage Bankers Association announced in its weekly survey that loan applications fell from the prior week.
$220 Mil Portfolio Trading
MAF Bancorp Inc. announced Wednesday it will sell approximately $220 in residential loans. The move is reportedly part of a balance sheet restructuring. In addition to the mortgage sale, the company will also sell more than a half billion dollars in securities.
The Secret to Sales
Connecting with anyone is the basis of building rapport, according to a recent Kiplinger audio conference. And the majority of that connection begins with body language. When dealing with customers, keep in mind that body language accounts for 55 percent of perceived communication and 38 percent is in the tone of voice, while only seven percent is of the spoken word.
2 More Shut Down
Alliance Bankshares Corp. announced it decided to cease operations of it mortgage banking subsidiary. Mortgages will instead be handled through a bank division. Harbourton Capital Group Inc. said its mortgage subsidiary ceased funding new mortgage loans and initiated a process to wind down its operations on Dec. 20.
Broker Beats State
While a mortgage broker was still applying for his Massachusetts license, a prospective employee decided to deliver a fake license to a wholesaler without the broker's knowledge. Regulators were informed, and a cease and desist order was issued against the broker. But the broker appealed through the courts and a judge ruled in his favor -- finding the broker was innocent and not liable for the prospective employee's actions.
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Copyright © 2005 MortgageDaily.com
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CA Broker Busy Growing
A mortgage broker is looking to double its staff of high producers and support personnel in California next year.
Business is booming at Twin Capital Mortgage and the employee base must expand to keep the momentum rolling, company Chief Executive Officer Darius Mirshahzadeh told MortgageDaily.com.
In the past seven months alone, the San Francisco brokerage originated $220 million of the year's expected total of $300 million -- surpassing the total of $150 million in all of all of 2005, according to the executive.
The volume is evenly split between subprime and Alt-A loans.
MortgageDaily.com subscribers read full story
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Litigation Fest
A Virginia Beach borrower has filed a lawsuit against a mortgage broker, claiming he was deceived about refinancing his delinquent loan. Meanwhile, the broker has filed a lawsuit against a television station that aired the borrower's allegations -- claiming the station's defaming coverage has severely cut into his business. And one attorney involved in the matter suggests more lawsuits are on the way.
Michael Robinson, the co-owner of D and D Home Loans, Inc. along with his wife, Valeria, filed suit last month in Virginia state court against television station WAVY-TV.
The Robinsons claim the television station defamed them and the mortgage company when it ran several promotions in advance of a news story about Darrell Salley's attempt to refinance his home loan with Robinson's company while facing foreclosure.
WAVY runs a news segment called "10 on Your Side" that highlights problems people claim they have had with local businesses. On Feb. 3, the station featured a story captioned "Stolen House?"
MortgageDaily.com subscribers read full story
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Mortgage Database Stolen
A mortgage broker has been jailed for stealing the customer database of a now bankrupt company.
Sales for Denver-based Mile High Capital Group hit $120 million in 2005 and grew to $175 million a year later, the company touted in a press release issued last year.
"I was drawn to Mile High because there was such a fantastic business plan in place," Jeffrey Dietz said in a July 2005 press release announcing his promotion to company president. "We supply good affordable housing in areas that need housing. We serve the client; we serve the tenant. It's a win-win situation."
But prosecutors and securities regulators in Colorado tell a different story.
MortgageDaily.com subscribers read full story
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Brokers Oppose National Registry
Mortgage brokers call a proposed national licensing system for loan originators "fatally flawed."
The system, sponsored by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators, continues to be "fatally flawed" as it is solely focused on the mortgage broker community and excludes originators at banks and other federally-regulated financial institutions, the National Mortgage Brokers Association announced on Friday.
"We support a nationwide license registry only if it includes all mortgage originators," said NAMB President Harry Dinham in the announcement. "It just doesn't make sense to include some and not others because all consumers should benefit regardless of the distribution channel chosen."
In October, the conference and the American Association announced that it was working on developing a national mortgage licensing system and database registry that would be in operation by early 2008 and managed by the State Regulatory Registry LLC.
MortgageDaily.com subscribers read full story
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