Friday, October 14, 2011

October 14: Servicing examination manual; MetLife - business as usual? JPM Chase mortgage numbers; possible servicing changes

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How much does a media room cost in Arizona? $2.5 million... when it's attached to
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MetLife Mortgage, suddenly the talk of the mortgage world, sent a memo to its clients.
"MetLife, Inc. announced on October 12, 2011 that in addition to its previously
announced decision to explore the sale of MetLife Bank, N.A.'s depository business,
the company will also explore a sale of the Bank's forward mortgage business. (Editor's
note: thus coining a term for the opposite of the "reverse" mortgage business, which
apparently is not for sale.) It's business as usual. MetLife Home Loans will continue
to add new clients, accept new registrations and locks, and fund and/or purchase
forward mortgages. The company also remains committed to continue servicing all
of its mortgage clients. There is no impact to your business with MetLife Home
Loans."

Cynics are quick to point out that this is exactly the time when there is a huge
impact to the business, but I received this note from a MetLifer: "We are excited
after learning more of knowing who will be lucky enough to acquire us. We're hiring
processors, underwriters, and funders, so we're going to continue to build the platform.
There is talk about improving pricing, and retention bonus', all the good stuff!
My team is sticking together and looking at all options but first and foremost
waiting until we know who our new parent is."
I received a few other notes. "Rob, is there any truth to the rumor that MetLife
is going to take the Snoopy logo and replace it with Lucy yanking the football
away from Charlie Brown?" (Not that I have heard, but that's clever.) "What are
folks saying about the buyer?" (Early front-runners appear to be PNC, which, as
a top-10 bank, is making a push into the California market, and a few folks mentioned
Fortress Financial - I am sure someone at BofA still has their phone number.)
Unfortunately for the commercial-mortgage-backed security business, the Fed is not
buying any of those. The Wall Street Journal reports that Credit Suisse Group is
poised to shut down its commercial-mortgage-backed securities division just days
after a new warning of layoffs on Wall Street. "The cutback also is a sign of the
soft patch the commercial real-estate industry is enduring. Property values had
been recovering until this summer, when concerns began rising about weakness in
the economy and global capital markets. Albert Sohn, the Credit Suisse executive
who oversees all securitized products...told the team that Credit Suisse is reviewing
several businesses for possible downsizing and would reach a final decision about
the securitization group in the next 30 days...in the meantime they weren't to make
any new loans, spend firm money, or travel to meet with clients." So much for the
big Halloween office party.

Being a large servicer has to, at this point, be an absolute nightmare. (Becoming
a small servicer, however, seems to be an attractive option for many.) The Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau said it will make oversight of the mortgage servicing
industry a top priority as it ramps up its oversight of banks. Get in line: countless
state and government agencies, special interest groups, and servicing staffs are
examining bank foreclosure practices and whether the proper legal steps are being
taken by servicers, who collect and manage loan payments, when a borrower becomes
delinquent on a loan. "We are going to take a close and measured view to ensure
that servicers and financial institutions are in compliance with the federal consumer
financial laws," Raj Date, the Treasury official leading the bureau. Unfortunately
for the CFPB, the nomination of its leader, along with many of its proposed policies
and procedures, are bogged down due to politics in Congress. "The agency will initially
focus its supervision efforts on the 105 banks, thrifts and credit unions that have
more than $10 billion in assets."

Steve Antonakes leads Financial Services Examinations at the CFPB, indicated that
CFPB examiners will focus on several areas of non-performing servicing: The fees
charged to borrowers who are in default; the process for referring a loan to foreclosure;
the servicer's application process for loan modifications and whether information
to borrowers is accurate, prominent and clear. The servicing examination procedures
will be implemented immediately.
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act gives the CFPB supervision
authority over a large number of mortgage servicers, allowing the agency to assess
whether the servicers are following the law. Read the Mortgage Servicing Examination
Procedures [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy6u9cdab&et=1108126379121&s=8721&e=001TUj_Y_qRy-arm9DO1dvOJqz_-ed-tlvY9b9fWQFLq-a_fFd3ViyfFYKdKO9pl-9bOC4C_Y0zsfODjSs2rXR0MJhaVOf00uY_XtTIIhKAZ9Lt1jk-lHQh-5cYieDmpwryJ2JWK169P39E1teZUsCcjICOxpAJnCVbl-8qaWOUJCFLPWmwFUo_z8ny9hgL2USdHoVxIPmAclMAIBme0IHGIJJvOOW6I61o].

Analysts have been "looking under the hood" at the JPMorgan Chase better-than-expected
earnings, with an eye on mortgage operations. (Net income was $1.2 billion, compared
with $716 million in the prior year.) "Net interest income was $4.1 billion, down
by $218 million, or 5%, reflecting lower loan balances due to portfolio runoff.
Noninterest revenue was $3.5 billion, up by $939 million, or 37%, driven by higher
mortgage fees and related income, debit card income, and deposit-related fees...The
provision for credit losses was $1.0 billion, a decrease of $370 million from the
prior year and an increase of $33 million from the prior quarter. While delinquency
trends have modestly improved compared with the prior year and are flat compared
with the prior quarter, the current-quarter provision continued to reflect elevated
losses in the mortgage and home equity portfolios...Noninterest expense was $4.6
billion, an increase of $395 million, or 9%, from the prior year, driven by investments
in branch and mortgage production sales and support staff, as well as elevated default-related
costs. Mortgage Production and Servicing reported net income of $205 million, compared
with net income of $25 million in the prior year."

It goes on. "Mortgage production pretax income was $493 million, compared with a
pretax loss of $450 million in the prior year. Production-related revenue, excluding
repurchase losses, was $1.3 billion, a decrease of 10% from the prior year and an
increase of 35% from the prior quarter. Current-quarter revenue reflected wider
margins and higher volumes when compared with the prior quarter, and lower volumes
and flat margins when compared with the prior year. Production expense was $497
million, an increase of $63 million, or 15%, reflecting a strategic shift to higher-cost
retail originations both through the branch network and direct to the consumer.
Repurchase losses were $314 million, compared with prior-year repurchase losses
of $1.5 billion, which included a $1.0 billion increase in the repurchase reserve.
Mortgage servicing, including MSR risk management, resulted in a pretax loss of
$153 million, compared with pretax income of $494 million in the prior year; and
compared with a pretax loss of $1.1 billion in the prior quarter, which included
$1.0 billion for estimated costs of foreclosure-related matters. Servicing-related
revenue was $1.2 billion, a decline of 10% from the prior year, as a result of the
decline in third-party loans serviced."

The FHFA in its role overseeing Freddie & Fannie released a revised proposal on
the structure of mortgage servicing compensation which will also impact the borrower.
The FHFA discussion paper revealed two new compensation structures for comment.
The first represents only a small modification to the current system, and includes
a small reduction to the minimum servicing fee, and usage of a reserve account to
sequester some of the servicing fee stream for non-performing loans. It is not a
big change, would keep the MSR as an asset on bank balance sheets, maintain the
alignment between investors and servicers, and on the margin help non-performing
loan servicing. For those reasons (it is not much change) odds makers don't give
this one much chance.
The second option represents a significant departure. It effectively switches servicing
comp to a pure fee-for-service model where the minimum servicing fee is reduced
to zero and the servicer receives a fixed fee for performing loan servicing. $10
a loan per month, perhaps? One variant of this proposal allows the servicer to
fully segregate the excess IO asset from the MSR, leading to even greater flexibility.
This proposal would certainly represent a large shift for banks, investors, and
the GSE's, since the fee-for-service approach effectively makes all servicers sub-servicers
to the GSE's. It appears, before any unintended consequences kick in, to address
many of the concerns the FHFA has regarding non-performing loan servicing, capitalization
of the MSR asset, and increasing competition. But servicers and investors would
be spooked.
During the darkest days of the recession more than 650,000 people a week were filing
their first-time claims for unemployment insurance. That number trended down for
the next two years, but since the beginning of 2011, only rarely have initial claims
dipped below 400,000. This is not enough for a pick-up in the economy. Yesterday
we found that Jobless Claims decreased 1,000 in the week ended Oct. 8 to 404,000,
as expected. We also found out that the U.S. trade deficit was $45.6 billion in
August, little changed from the previous month, as exports held near a record.
Yesterday traders reported that "real money began to emerge along with Fed buying
that has been averaging $1.3 billion per day" which helped mortgage prices somewhat.
Mortgage banker selling was limited at an estimated at $1.5 billion for the day.
(Do the math on the supply and demand.) MBS prices were higher by over .25 on 30-year
3.5's and the 10-yr finished at 2.17%.

This morning, however, gold is up, stocks are up, oil is up, grains are up, and...rates
are up. Retail Sales for September came out +1.1% - its strongest pace in seven
months. We'll have Consumer Sentiment and a Business Inventory number. But the decent
Retail Sales number, showing a little strength, has nudged rates higher: the 10-yr
is up to 2.25%

Ole and Lena went to the Olympics.
While sitting on a bench a lady turned to Ole and said, "Are you a pole vaulter?"
Ole said, "No, I'm Norvegian and my name isn't Valter."

If you're interested, visit my twice-a-month blog at the STRATMOR Group web site
located at
www.stratmorgroup.com [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy6u9cdab&et=1106435366068&s=4179&e=001SVt-ljbp53436QjxD9vbwURtIPPjV05jEcEKyBN3SjS2forXe0C_foO8RjEV-Uye0N7Z_Sh1il0SRXPx6PjQauayNXQjni-Hc9Sseu-hhZcR1ujeZyAEpw==]
. The current blog takes a look at Fannie & Freddie & the FHFA, and the changes
they have in the hopper. If you have both the time and inclination, make a comment
on what I have written, or on other comments so that folks can learn what's going
on out there from the other readers.

Rob

(Check out
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/channels/pipelinepress/default.aspx
[http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy6u9cdab&t=rdlvxaiab.0.epg7qedab.zy6u9cdab.8721&ts=S0684&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mortgagenewsdaily.com%2Fchannels%2Fpipelinepress%2Fdefault.aspx]
or
www.TheBasisPoint.com/category/daily-basis [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy6u9cdab&t=rdlvxaiab.0.v7uif6dab.zy6u9cdab.8721&ts=S0684&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thebasispoint.com%2Fcategory%2Fdaily-basis].
For archived commentaries, go to
www.robchrisman.com [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=zy6u9cdab&t=rdlvxaiab.0.fpg7qedab.zy6u9cdab.8721&ts=S0684&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.robchrisman.com%2F].
Copyright 2011 Rob Chrisman. All rights reserved. Occasional paid notices do appear.
This report or any portion hereof may not be reprinted, sold or redistributed without
the written consent of Rob Chrisman.)
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