I hate it when people use big
words just to make themselves sound perspicacious.
Here's an interesting number:
$765,000. The Transportation Security Administration announced in May that it
had collected that amount in loose change left behind in airport scanner trays
during 2015. (Miami and Los Angeles alone contributed $106k toward the total.)
Given what many think of the TSA, maybe it's not a surprise that it took until
May for employees to count it. Others might wonder what percentage of that
crack group at the TSA actually turn in all the change they find. Speaking of
percentages, according to Black Knight Financial Services, the refinanceable population is the highest since 2012. The
industry is licking their chops but LOs and underwriters know that many
borrowers and properties don't qualify.
New products continue to come
out. "Are you currently co-marketing with your referral sources? If the
answer is 'yes,' then how are you tracking it? If the answer is 'no,' would you
like to be? Jeff
Walton, president at Total Expert and a 30-year industry veteran,
can take you through their platform, if interested call 602-327-2324. With
Total Expert as the centralized system of record, all co-marketing efforts can
be automated, deployed and tracked across your organization from a single
integrated dashboard. Total Expert satisfies the unique needs of sales,
marketing and compliance departments while simplifying workflows and accelerating
revenue generation across your organization. Total Expert offers a complete co-marketing solution that aligns
sales, marketing, and compliance departments under one platform with a strict
eye on compliance.
As lenders exit the
correspondent and private label space, banks and credit unions are left
struggling to remain competitive and provide a quality service to their
customers and members. "Fortunately, agency direct lender AnnieMac Home Mortgage is actively working with
bank and credit union partners! With a full service residential lending
platform and portal for banks and credit unions, AnnieMac's sole focus is to
provide its partners a complete turnkey platform for its customer and
membership base and help grow their mortgage presence. Whether your
financial institution is looking for a complete turnkey platform or a new
correspondent investor with great service, extensive product line and
competitive price, reach out to AnnieMac! We are Fannie Mae, Freddie and Ginnie
direct. Contact VP of Financial Alliance, Mike Mandio at
(845)641-0541 or Jay
Patel, VP of Wholesale, Correspondent and Strategic Alliances at
703-582-3773 to learn more!
I can't believe that I
missed this one, but some big congratulations to Ray Brousseau. In July he was
promoted to president of Carrington Mortgage Services. And Genworth
Mortgage Insurance announced the appointment of Evan Stolove as General
Counsel and Senior Vice President with oversight of Genworth Mortgage
Insurance's Legal and Compliance Division.
There are some upcoming
events of note, most free.
Just a quick reminder
about today's (Thursday) webinar from United Wholesale Mortgage's CEO, Mat
Ishbia and National Mortgage Professional Magazine
"Strike While the Market's Hot" at 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT. In 60
minutes Mat will show you how to beat the competition by leveraging the right
products for your clients. He will share tips on how to fully capitalize this
low rate environment. Reserve your complimentary space here.
The small-balance
commercial mortgage market continues to grow in 2016 as more brokers
discover the impact these deals can have on their bottom line. Join Silver Hill Funding for a free webinar on Thursday, August 11, 2016 2-3 PM
EDT to learn what kinds of deals you can quickly close in today's
market. In this webinar you'll discover new ways to grow your business by
analyzing closed loans and case studies with Silver Hill's commercial experts.
Karen Deis has just
released information about the Mortgage Girlfriends Mastermind Retreatcalled
"Closing More Deals-Wearing High Heels." The two-day retreat is
Thursday, September 22 and Friday, September 23 in Rosemont, Illinois (near
Chicago). Attend sessions on creating a "brand called you",
social media strategies, and video marketing. There will be a session on
social media rules with Daniella Cassseres, Compliance Attorney with Offit
Kurman Law group, and a workshop on how to market to the four generational home
buying groups with Terri Murphy, President of US Learning Center, a company
dedicated to helping loan officers and real estate agents get more
leads. Registration includes lunches and dinner. Exclusively for women in
the mortgage industry.
SF-based software
company Snapdocs is leading a complimentary webinar titled "Avoiding
Costly Closing Pitfalls." They dig through the data on hundreds of
thousands of loan closings to identify the main reasons loans fall apart at the
closing table, especially when led by an outside notary signing agent.
Listeners also learn how to monitor and ensure compliance with 3rd party
vendors, and prevent pitfalls.
Essent invites you to register now for an August training
session. "With ever current calculators and a great variety of
training methods offered by a superior training team, you will feel confident
in your decision to train with Essent. Here you will have choices amongst on-demand
training sessions, interactive tools and live demo sessions."
Congrats to VRM Mortgage Services, an outsourcing solutions
provider for residential and commercial assets. For the third consecutive year
it is the recipient of multiple awards bestowed by DiversityBusiness.com. Now
in its 16th year, Diversitybusiness.com has been identifying
the nation's most successful entrepreneurs in a variety of categories and
continues to recognize VRM as one of the country's top African-American,
diversity-owned and privately held businesses. Awards like 47th in
the "Top 100 African American-Owned Business in the United States"
category, 158th in the "Top 500 Diversity-Owned Company in the
United States" category, the 17th "Top 100 Diversity-Owned
Company in Texas," and ranked 21st in the "Top 100
Privately-Held Company in Texas" categories.
It isn't the first and it
won't be the last. Yesterday word swept the airwaves that BOK closed down
its Correspondent Lending Division, giving everyone notice and ceasing
taking new applications. The word went out: "The purpose of this
communication is to inform you that BOK Financial has made the decision to exit
the correspondent lending business and that any new locks must be received by 5
p.m. CST Sept. 2. All production currently in pipeline will be honored and
purchased when delivered to BOK Financial. There will be no changes to the
current process. This decision was not made lightly, but the firm has decided
to strategically shift its focus to other mortgage channels..." (Anyone
misplaced can post a resume for free at www.LenderNews.com.)
Employees received a note
from Glenn Brunker. "...Exiting correspondent lending is in line with our
need to optimize our resources and capital effectively against the most
competitive and profitable opportunities available to us...This is a decision
that we did not make lightly. The correspondent channel has been integral to
the mortgage company's success and it has delivered many years of substantial
financial growth...Any decision of this gravity is amplified by knowing that it
will result in job loss...Our goal is to place as many of these employees as
possible either in existing open positions for which each is qualified in
mortgage or across the bank...BOK Financial remains committed to the mortgage
business and will continue to invest in its people and in technology that will
enhance the overall client experience and advance our competitive position
in our retail and consumer direct mortgage channels."
Are correspondent lenders
closing a trend? Perhaps. Many wonder if the residential lending industry in
the United States needs 100+ correspondent investors. Others believe that with
the variety of sizes, target markets, taste in loans, reps & warrants, and
underwriting nuances, the industry is better off with them. Time will tell.
Certainly when Wells and Bank of America exited wholesale a slew of others
rushed into that business channel or staffed up to take advantage of the void.
And buyers are interested
in financial service companies. Reuters reported yesterday that TIAA has
been in exclusive negotiations to acquire U.S. online lender EverBank Financial
Corp Inc. for $2.5 billion. "The deal would underscore TIAA's
ambitions to bolster TIAA Direct, its own internet bank launched four years
ago. TIAA Direct offers consumer products from checking and saving accounts to
mortgages and other loans...TIAA provides financial services for people who
work at not-for-profit organizations in the academic, research, medical and
cultural fields, serving 3.9 million active and retired employees."
BBCN Bancorp, Inc. and
Wilshire Bancorp, Inc. announced the completion of their merger. "The
transformational combination creates the only super regional Korean-American
bank in the United States, with total assets of approximately $13.2 billion,
gross loans of approximately $10.4 billion, and total deposits of approximately
$10.6 billion. The combined entity will operate under the new name of
"Hope Bancorp, Inc." at the holding company level, and the combined
bank operations of the wholly owned subsidiaries will operate under the new
banner of "Bank of Hope."
And it was also announced
during the last week or so that in Tennessee Citizens Bank ($750mm in assets)
will acquire American Trust Bank of East Tennessee ($140mm) for about $19.8mm in
cash or roughly 1.11x tangible book. Monona State Bank ($469mm, WI) will
acquire Middleton Community Bank ($293mm, WI). Sunflower Bank ($1.8B, KS) will
merge with the parent company of Capital Bank, SSB ($361mm, TX) and The First
National Bank of Santa Fe ($1.7B, NM).
By the way, SNL Financial
reports the number of US bank and thrift branches declined by a net 353 in Q2
to 92,231. This follows the trend of prior quarters of -327 (Q1 2016), -330 (Q4
2015), -591 (Q3 2015).
While I am blathering
about banks, a report from KPMG warns that banks will need to raise up to EU350 billion in extra
capital or cut lending by as much as EU7T to meet the "Basel 4"
package of financial regulations that top officials insist doesn't even exist!
And Bloomberg discusses
how bank regulators are still pressing banks to ensure that are complying with lending standards with regards to junk or
near-junk companies.
Today we've had the usual
jobless claims; tomorrow is the unemployment data. Last year while cleaning out
a drawer in my desk, I came across a 5 ¼" floppy disk with the words My
Resume written on it. While certainly not as cherished as my collection
of Pink Floyd 8 track tapes, or my "Star Wars" on Betamax, I couldn't
part ways with it just yet. It's a great example of how things have changed in
the labor markets over the last 25 years; from typing out your resume on an old
IBM ball typewriter, to saving it to a floppy (5 ¼" or 3 ½"), to
sending in electronic mail, and now posting it online, job searching has
evolved.
The Chicago Fed's paper What Does Online Job Search Tell Us About the Labor Market?
examines the evolution of online job search and how it has become the principal
method for finding employment and hiring workers. R. Jason Faberman and
Marianna Kudlyak write, "Until even a few years ago, online job search
had not been studied very much in economic research...one key early study on
online job searches found that in 2000, [it] was used by about one-quarter of
unemployed job seekers and was no more effective than traditional job search
methods in helping them find work. More-recent research, however, suggests that
both the use and effectiveness of online sites have changed dramatically since
the turn of the twenty-first century." Today, according to the paper, researchers
find that the unemployed in 2008-09 were three times more likely to use online
venues than about ten years earlier and that using the sites significantly
increased job seekers.'
Rates? Flat as Florida.
The news from Wednesday (ISM Services Index, ADP Employment Change) didn't
ruffle any feathers although we did have a little intra-day volatility. With
the Fed governors always running around giving speeches their quotes are kind
of lost in the noise, but yesterday Chicago Fed President Charles Evans, an
alternate voter for the FOMC, said that "perhaps one rate increase could
be appropriate this year even if I would prefer none until we saw inflation
much more strongly."
Today we've seen the Bank
of England's monetary decision. The Bank delivered an "easing
package" via a rate cut by 25 basis points to 0.25% - the first since
2009, a purchase of 10 billion sterling in corporate bonds, and an increase in
Gilts purchase by 60 billion to 435 billion.
In this country we've had
the July Challenger Job Cuts (at 45k up 19% from June) and Initial Jobless
Claims (+3k to 269k). Coming up are June Factory Orders - not a market mover,
and late in the day we'll see the prepayment information on agency loans which
investors monitor - it impacts supply and demand. Tomorrow is the set of
employment data, and we can expect nonfarm payrolls to be up about 200k,
unemployment around 4.8%, and a slight rise in hourly earnings. The 10-year
is down to a 1.52% yield and agency MBS prices are better by .125 versus
Wednesday's close.
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