This
weekend, between the BBQ and waiting for fireworks, or dodging hurricanes,
don't make the mistake of playing the parlor game of making a list of last
names that are the same as occupations. Surnames that match jobs, just in
the English language, total more than 600. If a man was a carpenter he
might be called John Carpenter and because sons very often followed their
father's occupation the surname stuck. Some occupational surnames are obvious,
like Smith, Potter, Shoemaker, Cooper, Mason, Tailor or Taylor, Weaver, Miller,
Baker, Cook, Fisher, Shepherd, Carter, A fowler caught birds. A waterman rowed
a boat or a barge. Some are a little less obvious. A sawyer was a man who sawed
logs. A turner was a man who turned wood on a lathe and made things like wooden
bowls. A roper made ropes. A shoesmith made horse shoes. A Mercer was a dealer
in fine cloth. A chapman and a hawker sold goods at markets. People who sold
goods of a certain kind were also called mongers. An inman was an inn keeper.
Baxter is an old English word for a (usually female) baker. Brewer and Brewster
both, obviously come from brewing. Like I said, there are hundreds; thousands
if you throw in foreign languages.
Speaking
of back-office trends, sometimes one has to "bite the bullet" and
play major league catch up with all the vendor and MI updates that have
crossed my computer in recent weeks. Let's do it! Besides, it seems that
vendors make up half the attendance at some of the mortgage conferences anyway.
As always, it is best to read the full bulletin for details, but these will
give you a feel for what has been going on out there. So in no particular
order...
Remember
RMIC? "On June 27, 2014 the North Carolina Department of Insurance
issued a Final Order ("Order") Approving the Amended and Restated
Corrective Plan ("Plan") for Republic Mortgage Insurance Company and
its affiliate, Republic Mortgage Insurance Company of North Carolina
(collectively the "Companies"). The Order is available on the
Companies' website at www.rmic.com. In
accordance with the Order, effective with claims settled on or after July 1,
2014, the Companies will resume payment of all valid claims at one-hundred
percent (100%) of the claim amount without further deferrals. Furthermore, the
Companies will pay, in full, all deferred payment obligations
("DPOs") which are outstanding as of June 30, 2014. These payments
are expected to be remitted to policyholders no later than July 31, 2014."
NMIH
announced a settlement agreement with Arch U.S. MI and the legacy PMI receiver for an immaterial
amount to be paid by NMIH and its insurance carriers. Arch will release NMIH
and the other Defendants from all alleged claims in the complaint. The
settlement of this litigation was largely expected by late summer. However, it
appears that the settlement amount will be less than expected.
Radian
Group Inc. completed the acquisition of Clayton Holdings LLC. As previously
disclosed, Radian Group paid aggregate cash consideration of $305 million,
subject to customary purchase price adjustments, to purchase all of the
outstanding equity interests in Clayton and to repay Clayton's outstanding
debt. "Today we welcome Clayton Holdings to our family. The mortgage
solutions and capabilities they bring will help diversify our revenue stream
and expand our core competencies, positioning Radian for new opportunities as
the U.S. housing market evolves," said Radian's Chief Executive Officer
S.A. Ibrahim. "The Clayton acquisition builds on Radian's strong heritage
and experience in delivering innovative products and solutions that allow our
customers to achieve their goals."
MGIC announced New York has
now approved both borrower-paid and lender-paid single premium rate changes.
These changes, which were put in place for most states last December, will be
effective for MI applications received after June 15, 2014. The credit score
classifications for standard nonrefundable borrower-paid and lender-paid single
premiums are being modified and most rates are being lowered. Below are
examples of the new rates in key cells. Complete rate cards with these lower
rates are available at MGIC Rates
National
MI
joined forces with XEROX MORTGAGE SERVICES' BLITZDOCS®.
Integration
of private mortgage insurer and BlitzDocs simplifies process for lenders using
the Xerox collaborative network. National MI stated joining forces with
Xerox allows its lender customers who use BlitzDocs to transmit their documents
easily, another option to offer customers to transmit loan documents
electronically and securely.
Radian has lowered pricing for
LPMI single premiums with powerful savings for credit scores of 720+ effective
August 11, 2014. And in many cases, Radian's pricing is lower than other MI
companies! It created a new 760+ credit band and reduced rates for borrowers
within certain LTV bands and credit scores of 760+ and 720-739. Visit Radian
website for the complete information premiums eBulletin 2014-4.
United
Guaranty
has a new Master Policy coming in October. UG's new master policy is the only
one in the MI industry to include a Policy Commitment Letter-specific to each
lender-that clearly defines each party's roles and responsibilities, and
clearly spells out policies and practices governing underwriting, claims, and
appeals. To view the information, visit the website Master Policy.
FormFree Holdings Corporation,
an award-winning provider of next-generation verification technology for the
mortgage industry, has appointed John Sheppard president and COO. Sheppard, who
has more than 25 years of senior leadership experience in the consumer goods
and technology industries, will be responsible for overseeing the growth of the
company and AccountChek, FormFree's
proprietary flagship product that verifies a borrower's ability to pay back
loans.
PCLender,
LLC has
acquired the PCLender loan origination system (LOS) and formed a new company
that will focus on providing turn-key mortgage technology solutions for
midsized mortgage bankers.
Did
you know that there is an International Association of Outsourcing
Professionals? Me neither! Indecomm, a provider
of consulting and outsourcing solutions for mortgage lending, retail banking,
and other industries, "has once again ranked among the top global
outsourcing companies by the IAOP. The company ranked 54th among the top
global 100 companies in the Leaders category for the 2014 Global Outsourcing
100, according to a release. The honor marks the seventh straight year
that Indecomm has been recognized by IAOP as a global corporate leader."
But wait, there's more! Indecomm was also honored among the Best 5 Leaders in
Education, the Best 10 Leaders in Corporate Services, and the Best 10 Leaders
in Southeast Asia. The firm also ranked among the Best 20 Leaders category in
Transaction Processing Services and the Best 20 Companies in India.
AllRegs has launched a
"procedures product" line designed to provide clear step-by-step
guidance to a lender's staff about operational aspects of regulatory-based
procedures. Dan Thoms, executive vice president for AllRegs, suggested
that, "These procedure templates help support our clients in filling gaps
in their regulatory compliance infrastructure. Saying your company will
implement a policy isn't enough anymore-you have to be able to show exactly the
steps staff members need to take when handling operational tasks, our procedure
documents fill that need." Guidance released by the CFPB in December of
2013 specifically addresses policies and procedures. Beyond ensuring procedure
documents cover the key components of the Dodd-Frank rules, the regulatory
agency suggests having a process in place for keeping documents accurate as
regulations evolve. AllRegs Procedure Templates are
offered with a one-time purchase price per company. The templates are delivered
in MS Word format and can be personalized by the customer or fully customized
by AllRegs to include specific customer requirements. Maintenance plans are
available to keep documents up to date with legislative and regulatory changes.
Vantage Production, LLC,
a leading innovator in customer relationship management (CRM), marketing, sales
and content solutions, announced that Security National Mortgage Company
of Salt Lake City, Utah, has selected its Vantage Integrated ProductionSM(VIP)
solution to centralize marketing, compliance and sales process management for
its national network of retail origination branches. Like many mortgage
lenders, SNMC was concerned about standardizing and controlling messaging for
Realtors and consumers to ensure compliance with CFPB requirements, as well as
making sure that loan officers were utilizing the best possible materials
across the country. SNMC was founded in 1993 as a subsidiary of the
Security National Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: SNFCA), which began in 1965 as
Security National Life Insurance Company and has invested in mortgage loans for
almost 50 years.
A
La Mode Software for real estate professionals offered up TOTAL to enhance and
simplify document data entry. For example, a common request for appraisers was
to overflow field data in the same order as the major form. One of TOTAL's key
addenda features is that it overflows data from the major form to the addenda
in the order the fields appear on the form, as opposed to simply the order that
the appraiser filled them out. This setting is on by default, so you don't have
to do anything to get it working. If you're still using WinTOTAL Aurora and
haven't installed TOTAL yet, it's a free upgrade as long as you have any
contract with us. Don't have TOTAL yet? Visit the website to view all the tools
offered: a la mode.
Alight
Planning
is a fast-growing provider of industry specific applications that help firms
transform how they view planning and budgeting and make it a constant and
relevant part of their businesses. Alright has announced Alight Mortgage
Lending - a new SaaS application that helps mortgage lending firms achieve top
financial performance. To learn about Alight Planning, visit the website at: Alight Planning.
Optimal Blue
unveiled new services that included adding the patent-pending real-time lock
monitoring functionality, incorporating the "Equivalent Rate"
feature, to their Optimal Blue Advantage real-time Fair Lending solution.
When applied to a mortgage lender's locked pipeline, the Equivalent Rate
calculations immediately highlight any loans that may not have been priced
equally. "Our clients can greatly reduce the chance for rate disparity and
pricing discrimination," said Tammy Butler, Director, Fair Lending and
Compliance. "They need this now more than ever!"
Clear Capital was
selected by Freddie Mac as Technology Provider for Appraisal Data Validation in
Uniform Collateral Data Portal. By providing appraisal data validation
services, Clear Capital will offer Freddie Mac additional insight to appraisal
quality and accuracy. "What can Clear Capital offer your company?
Clear Capital's ClearQC examines Appraisals and BPO's from any valuation
provider identifying risky or erroneous reports. ClearQC's user-friendly
interface and seamless integration key benefits include: elimination of
secondary reviews or use of third party data sources, customize to meet your
specific business requirements with dynamic rule sets, identifies red flags,
functions as an internal audit tool and so much more."
Equifax announced that its
Spectrum Verification Services Platform (powered by data from The Work Number,
a solution offered through Workforce Solutions, Equifax and the largest
collection of payroll records contributed directly from employers) completed
more than nine million employment and income verifications in 2013,
representing nearly one-third of the mortgage industry's total verifications
for the year. "In today's real estate market, instant and increased
transparency into a borrower's accurate income levels and employment status is
a critical requirement. For lenders, these verifications have historically been
manual, time-consuming processes that require confirmations from a wide range
of sources. The Spectrum Platform streamlines the loan origination process by
providing lenders with a fully automated verification solution that reduces
fraud, improves overall loan quality and cycle times, avoids capacity issues
and reduces costs."
The markets.... Let's face it -
rates have not done much since late January. During that time the 10-yr. seems
"content" sitting between 2.45% and 2.80%, and we closed Wednesday
smack dab in the middle of that (2.63%). We did have a surprisingly strong ADP
number (+281k), and mortgages did better than Treasury prices. In fact, I
didn't see many price changes from investors, and for the most part mortgage
rates and prices have continually been up a little, down a little.
But today, ahead of an early
close in the bond market and the holiday tomorrow, we've had a spate of
employment data. Non-farm payrolls were expected at +220k and the unemployment
rate was expected steady at 6.3%, but were +288k and 6.1%, with some improved
back-month revisions, while average hourly earnings were +.2% (+2% from a year
ago). Soon after the news rates are higher with the 10-yr touching 2.69% and
agency MBS prices worse by .250-.375. Jobs and housing, housing and jobs -
and this jobs number improvement is going to be hard to fight.
Executive
Rate Market Report:
Immediately
prior to the 8:30 June employment report the 10 yr was unchanged at 2.63% and
30 yr MBS prices unchanged also. June unemployment rate fell to 6.1% frm 6.3%; non-farm payrolls
+288K, with revisions higher for May and April adding an additional 29K jobs to
what had been reported; private jobs increased 262K frm 224K in May. The
average hourly earnings +0.2% as expected, yr/yr +2.0%. The labor participation
rate unchanged at 62.8% At 62.8; the share of population either working or
looking for work remains around 30-year lows, a sign that many of the unemployed
have given up their job searches. . The unemployment rate is the lowest since
Sept.2008. The number of long-term unemployed Americans fell to 3.1 million,
suggesting more jobs are becoming available. Factories took on the most workers
in four months, while payrolls at private service providers climbed by the most
since October 2012. job gains continue to be led by low-paying sectors. Retail
added over 40,000 new jobs while leisure and hospitality added 39,000.
Higher-paying sectors continued to lag behind in the jobs recovery.
Manufacturing added 16,000 new jobs and construction added 6,000. An index
gauging the breadth of private-industry hiring in June climbed to 64.8 from
62.9 a month earlier. June marked the first five-month stretch of job creation
in excess of 200,000 since the boom years of the late 1990s.
Weekly
jobless claims also reported at 8:30 were right on estimates, up 2K to 315K.
The May US trade deficit also at 8:30 -$44.4B better than $-45.1B expected.
Neither matter though with June employment holding court in the stock, bond and
MBS markets.
The
ECB didn’t
add to last month’s stimulus program. The German 10 yr bund continued to fall
in price as a result; down three days in a row, the longest run of declines in
four weeks, matching the decline of the US 10 yr.
At
10:00 the final data this week; June ISM services sector index expected at 56.2 frm
56.3 in May. The index slightly weaker at 56.0; the components though were
better. New orders index at 61.2 frm 60.5 last month, the employment component
at 54.4 frm 52.4 adding more confirmation to the view the economy will likely
grow at a 3.5% annual GDP rate after declining 2.9% in Q1.
The
bellwether 10 yr note, driver for MBS rates, is trading above its 100 day
average for the first time in two months (4/4/14). Obviously all of our
technical models are now bearish. One after another, recent economic
measurements have been better than expected; possibly as a result of the weak
first quarter that had lowered economists’ forecasts. The data is better
overall but still not roaring. These days any good news is welcome at the
moment. Stock investors enjoying the higher run with the DJIA braking above 17K
for the first time ever on the open this morning. At 9:30 the DJIA opened +46,
NASDAQ +16, S&P +5; 10 yr 2.68% +5 bp and so far for the week the 10 up 14
bps in rate, 30 yr MBS rate +10 basis points; at 9:30 MBS price down 14 bps on
the 4.0 coupon and -22 bps o the 3.5 coupon as investors that bought the 3.5
are getting out of the low coupon. No more 3.5 coupons for the immediate
outlook. The 10 yr note rate is the highest since May 13 when Mario Draghi
launched another stimulus for the EU and made a point of is concern the EU
economies may be headed to deflation.
Markets
will have an early close this afternoon ahead of tomorrow’s National Holiday.
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