A lot of people love pizza - they
think of it as God's gift to the weekly menu. Thanks to the wonders of the
internet, here is something totally un-mortgage related: MapOfPizzaNearYou. I am
sure those folks at Chase could use a little quality pie while crunching the
numbers on that $13 billion.
Altisource, a leading industry
service provider, continues its expansion and is seeking experienced industry
professionals for two highly visible Sales Executive positions.
Altisource provides a menu of outsourcing services to banks and non-banks,
including correspondent pre-purchase review, quality control and advisory
services. With its family of companies, including Lenders One, 2014 for
Altisource holds amazing potential. Candidates with mature industry
networks, exceptional correspondent and outsourcing knowledge are
encouraged. If you wish to learn more, please contact Alex Rathgeb,
Recruiting Manager, at alex.rathgeb@altisource.com.
And in an effort to expand their
growing retail branching network, Gold Star Mortgage Financial Group is
seeking to fill positions for Regional Retail Account Executives capable of
recruiting and developing retail branches in AL, CA, CO, CT, FL, IL, IN, MA, MD,
MI, MN, NC, NJ, OH, OR, PA, TN, TX, VA, WA, WI. Based in Ann Arbor, MI and
founded in 2000, Gold Star has become one of the fastest growing mortgage
companies and top 50 lenders in the nation. As an Inc. 500 & Inc. 5000
company they have been recognized 4 consecutive years as a Michigan Top Work
Place and more recently recognized by Mortgage Technology Magazine as one of
the nation's Top Tech-Savvy Lenders. They are currently licensed to do business
in 21 states. The position calls for very experienced, self-motivated
individuals with deeply rooted relationships in the industry throughout the
respective regions. To learn more, submit resumes and inquiries to Daniel
Milstein at dmilstein@goldstarfinancial.com.
I travel to a lot of engagements
(this week is Los Angeles, Kansas, and North Carolina, and then to DC for the
conference) and am jealous of my colleague Garth Graham who will be speaking at
a virtual summit this week - no travel, and he has a chance to talk about the
mortgage business and make some jokes in the process. The topic is, "How
lenders and brokers must make the most of existing conditions to successfully
compete." Don't miss out on Velocify's unique one-day Mortgage
Sales Virtual Summit - "Driving Growth through the Market Shift"
on 10/23 from 9AM-3PM PDT (12PM-6PM EDT): Velocify.
What is ESNT? It is
the New York Stock Exchange symbol for Essent Group Ltd., which
announced that it has commenced an initial public offering of 19,710,118 of its
common shares pursuant to a registration statement on Form S-1 filed with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). The Company is
offering 17,000,000 common shares and certain selling shareholders are offering
2,710,118 common shares. The Company expects to grant the underwriters a 30-day
option to purchase up to an aggregate of 2,956,517 additional common
shares. The estimated initial public offering price is between $13.50 and
$15.50 per common share. The Company intends to use the net proceeds of
the offering for general corporate purposes, which may include capital
contributions to support the growth of the Company's insurance subsidiaries.
Let's keep going with some
aggregator, bank, and vendor news, other than the $13 billion
Chase/WAMU/Bear settlement. I think that works out to about $18.94 per
loan, but I haven't run the numbers yet. (Seriously, while the overall sum is
large, it is chopped up: $6 billion as compensation for investors like pension
funds that suffered losses from mortgage securities sold by JPMorgan, Bear
Stearns and Washington Mutual, $4 billion will take the form of relief for
struggling homeowners in cities like Detroit, $3 billion will represent the
only fine in the case and that is for the civil investigation into mortgage
securities that JPMorgan itself sold in the run-up to the financial crisis.)
Keeping it local, Ashland,
Kentucky's Poage Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: PBSK, "Poage"), the
parent company of Home Federal Savings and Loan Association announced the
signing of a definitive agreement to acquire Town Square Financial Corporation,
the holding company for Town Square Bank. The combined company
will have over $450 million in assets, create the sixth largest bank within the
Ashland, KY MSA in total deposits and operate 10 banking offices. Per KBW, as
of September 30 the transaction value represents 104% of Town Square tangible
book value and 13.3 times Town Square's last twelve months earnings.
Plaza let
clients know that, "USDA issued an announcement today that the Guaranteed
Underwriting System and the processing of lender submitted loan closings will
be delayed until next week. (To read the USDA announcement: MoreThanCropReports.
Until further notice: Plaza will continue to fund/purchase USDA loans with
Conditional Commitments issued 'subject to commitment authority.' At this time,
and barring further Congressional action, current eligible areas for USDA Rural
Housing Programs will remain unchanged through January 15, 2014."
In BOK-land, its mortgage company
is expanding its origination abilities nationwide. It announced the launch of
HomeDirect Mortgage, an online
sales channel designed to meet home buyers where they are increasingly shopping
for mortgages at home, the office, and on the go. The new channel compliments BOK
Financial's mortgage operation that originated about $4 billion in loans in
2012 with the ability to generate new mortgage applications, outside its eight
state footprint, to all 50 states. Todd Geiman, previously of National Bank of
Kansas City, runs the new channel which is based in Kansas City, KS.
As part of its Risk Management
System product suite, Mortgage Capital Management has rolled out
Diffusion Analysis, which provides real-time reports of market activity by
tracking direction, momentum, and volatility. For more information,
contact Lori Sansoucie at lori@seroka.com.
KBW reports that Capitol
Bancorp Limited announced that it has entered into a stock purchase
agreement to sell the common stock of its remaining consolidated entities, Bank
of Las Vegas, Indiana Community Bank, Michigan Commerce Bank and Sunrise Bank
of Albuquerque, to Talmer Bancorp, Inc., a bank holding company located in
Troy, Michigan
NY-based Constellation Value
Protection has rolled out an interesting offering: through securitization
of reinsurance and various capital market participants, it is rolling out a
service that promises to protect borrowers from having their property
depreciate in value over a specific period of time. Contact Kenneth
Herzberg (kherzberg@constellationvpi.com) to find
out more.
Fannie Mae has
updated its flood insurance guidelines on attached condo projects to require a
master policy that covers the lower of 80% of the replacement cost or the
maximum insurance available from the National Flood Insurance Program per unit
(currently $250,000). If any part of the security structure (e.g. any
structure securing the mortgage) on the subject property lies within a Special
Flood Hazard Area, it too must have flood insurance, and any units that do not
comply with this or are not covered sufficiently will not be eligible for
purchase. This policy will go into effect for all loans whose
applications are dated February 1, 2014 and after.
As of January 1st,
Fannie will be assessing each lender an Eligible Lender Maintenance Fee at the
beginning of ever calendar year that can be waived if the given mortgage loan
delivery, servicing portfolio unpaid principal balance, or DO/DU fee threshold
has been met in the previous 12 months. The mortgage loan delivery threshold
will also be changed from $2 million in dollar volume to one loan.
Following up on its January
bulletin, Fannie has clarified that inter vivos revocable trust loans
securing primary residences will be treated as Ability to Repay Covered loans,
while any such loans securing investment properties are treated as ATR Exempt
loans. Both transactions remain eligible for purchase.
Fannie implemented several changes
to DU for Government loans that are submitted on or after the weekend of
October 19th. These include no longer displaying
accounts/assets, income types, or underlying attribute triggering the message
with zero values (i.e. when the down payment is cash on hand and the down
payment is zero) in the DU Underwriting Findings Report.
Freddie Mac has
removed the delivery fee for all California condo loans with settlement dates
of October 1st and after.
Along with the fraud prevention
training required for employees, Freddie seller/servicers must now train any
third-party vendors who perform services related to origination and servicing
and have written procedures in place for doing so. In addition, seller/servicers
are required to report fraud in connection with any mortgage sold to or
serviced for Freddie "when they first know or suspect" any such
incident, rather than waiting until they have "reasonable belief."
Effective for all mortgages whose
settlement dates fall on or after March 1, 2014, Freddie will be updating its
asset documentation guidelines for large deposits, whose sources of funds will
need to be documented if the deposit is over 25% of the total monthly
qualifying income. Sellers will also have to document deposits of any
amount if there is an indication that the funds are borrowed, but if the source
of funds is evident from the account statement's deposit information (e.g.
direct payroll deposits) or other documented income or asset source (e.g. tax
refunds disclosed on the tax returns) no further verification is necessary. As
for IRS-qualified employer retirement accounts, the loan file must contain
documentation of the retirement plan's terms that allow the borrower to
withdraw funds regardless of their current employment status in order for the
vested amount to be used as reserves. Freddie will also be adding more specific
documentation requirements for direct verification of assets but will only be
requiring the borrower funds and reserves used in the evaluation to be
documented.
Freddie is also updating the
underwriting guidelines for borrowers on temporary leave for mortgages
currently being delivered.
Effective immediately, Freddie is
allowing restructured mortgages to be refinances as Relief Refinances, which
may be delivered through a Purchase Contract. Loans being considered for
an FHLMC modifications are also eligible for a refinance under the Relief
Refinance program. Freddie will be retiring the chapter of the Selling
Guide that outlines the requirements for Relief Refinances with Application
Received Dates before November 19, 2012 (C24); as such, all Relief Refinances
whose applications were received before that date must have settlement dates
before January 1, 2014.
"Rob, what is the
'primary-secondary spread' my Capital Markets gal keeps talking about?" That is
an easy one. MBS investors, capital markets personnel, and originators keep an
eye on the difference between the primary markets (rate sheets for borrowers)
and the secondary markets (where mortgage-backed securities trade). For
example, a recent analysis on "primary-secondary" pricing showed that
lenders' buy-sell pricing spreads have been cut by 75-100 basis points since
early in the year. Undoubtedly, those spreads had some capacity-managing
fat in them during Q1 and part of Q2, but they may have moved beyond cutting
out that fat and many lenders appear to be on a real lean diet. Traditionally,
folks simply look at the spread between the daily "survey rates" of
lender offerings and the effective yield of current mortgage coupons.
That can provide some decent trend indications. Others drill deeper and perform
some actual loan sale execution analysis tied to those survey rates, you get
what I think is a more granular look at what pricing spreads are really
doing. Look at the spreads all you want - companies fearing for their
future are cutting margin to the bone, thus making less on fewer loans in an
effort to stay in business, which impacts everyone else in that market.
Same ol' thing, different decade. Obviously, some lenders are cutting more, and
could be gone in the not-to-distant future. Those who have had to cut less
will probably weather the storm and gain market share through their competitors
leaving the business.
Harsh realities aside, NAR put
aside its lobbying efforts long enough to report on Existing Home Sales. It
came in pretty much as expected, although August was revised lower, and there
is a five month inventory nationwide. First time home-buyers accounted for 28%
of all sales, all cash deals were 33% of the total, and non-owner deals
(investor) were 19%. The median home price rose 11.7% from last year to
$199,200.
That really didn't impact rates
on Monday. Rates worsened slightly, and, given nothing else to blame it on,
traders blamed it on nervousness about Tuesday's unemployment data. The
employment situation for September was released at 2:30AM Hawaii time.
Consensus on nonfarm payrolls was +180k versus +169k in August, while the
unemployment rate was expected to be unchanged at 7.3 percent. It actually came
in at +148k, 7.2%, and July & August were revised. The 10-yr. yield
closed Monday at 2.61%, prior to the number was 2.58%, soon after the number
was down to 2.54% and agency MBS prices were better by .250-.375.
Planning for the
fall football season in the South is radically different from up north.
For those who are planning a football trip south, here are some helpful
hints, part 2 of 4:
Getting Tickets:
NORTH: 5 days before the game you
walk into the ticket office on campus and purchase tickets.
SOUTH: 5 months before the
game you walk into the ticket office on campus and put name on
waiting list for tickets.
Friday Classes After a Thursday
Night Game:
NORTH: Students and
teachers not sure they're going to the game, because they have classes on
Friday.
SOUTH: Teachers cancel Friday
classes because they don't want to see the few hungover students that might
actually make it to class.
Parking:
NORTH: An hour before game time,
the University opens the campus for game parking.
SOUTH: RVs sporting their
school flags begin arriving on Wednesday for the weekend festivities. The
really faithful arrive on Tuesday.
Rob
(Check out http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/channels/pipelinepress/default.aspx or www.TheBasisPoint.com/category/daily-basis. For archived commentaries or to subscribe, go to www.robchrisman.com. Copyright 2013 Chrisman LLC. All rights reserved. Occasional paid job listings 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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