(Thanks to Stephen S. for this one; timely
given news from Nor. Cal.)
"Grandpa, do you mind if I play my new
harmonica in here?" asked little Phil.
"Of course not, Phil. I love music. In
fact, when your grandma and I were young, music saved my life."
"What happened?" asked Phil.
"Well, it was during the famous
Johnstown flood. The dam broke and when the water hit our house it knocked it
right off the foundation. Grandma got on the dining room table and floated out
safely."
"How about you?"
"Me? Well, I accompanied her on the
piano!"
When I was a kid I'd go the bank, and my parents' favorite
teller and I would swap my money for the silver dimes and quarters she'd saved
for me. I still go into the bank - how else am I supposed to find $2 bills -
but maybe I am bucking the latest trend in banking: people-less branches. You walk in and deal with someone via
videoconference. Are bank branches being killed by the iPhone?
In wholesale job news, after a record-breaking end to 2016, Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions is continuing its
aggressive growth into 2017. To help support this extraordinary growth, its
management company, Angel Oak Companies, recently added four new executives to
its leadership team. Al Stanley was hired as Chief Information Officer, Steven
Winokur as Chief Marketing Officer, Nick Mantia as VP of Training and Matt
Henson was named Chief Human Resources Officer. Kicking off 2017 with a bang,
Angel Oak has already added 4 additional Account Executives. Aron Thielen
joined in Minnesota, Ryan Burchfield in Northern California, and both Ralphael
Wilson and Martin Espitia in Texas. Recognized as the leaders in the non-Agency
space, Angel Oak is continuing to hire AEs in markets across the country and
underwriters/support staff in its Atlanta headquarters. Email careers@angeloakms.com
immediately for consideration.
On the M&A front, "Rob, I am seeing an aggressive
push for retail platform growth by mid-size lenders - lenders in the $600M/year
to $1.5B market segments, as they present a more personal, less corporate
experience than the larger enterprise mortgage lenders struggling to replace
30-40% of their mortgage volume lost with the recent rate hikes in Q4
2016", says Dr.
Rick Roque, founder of Menlo, a leading M&A and Retail Mortgage Banking growth
firm. "It is an exciting time for the retail LO Team closing $5M/month or
more, or an independent mortgage bank looking to be acquired - the demand is
serious - especially for companies or groups closing $60M to $300M per
year". If you have a FHA Full Eagle Licensed in CA, NC or any other
state, contact
me for possible buyers interested in your company (principals only
please).
In other personnel news, Quicken Loans revealed the
promotion of three members of the company's senior leadership team. CEO Bill
Emerson, who has been there 24 years, will move to the role of Vice Chairman of
Rock Holdings, Quicken Loans' parent company. Jay Farner, who has been
with Quicken Loans for 21 years, is the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of
the company. And Bob Walters, Quicken Loans' Chief Economist and rookie of
the bunch with "only" 20 years at Quicken, will now serve in the dual
capacity of President and Chief Operating Officer. (If you're keeping
track, Quicken employs 16,000 across the country, with more than 10,000 located
within downtown Detroit.)
And attorneys for the Justice Department and Quicken Loans
Inc. will meet today in a Detroit courtroom for a hearing on Quicken's request
to dismiss the case regarding if Quicken Loans knowingly submitted claims for
hundreds of improperly underwritten Federal Housing Administration-insured
loans. The government's suit claims loans funded with inflated appraisals, poor
credit risks and borrowers with insufficient incomes, and that Quicken gave
"speed bonuses" to underwriters. The mortgage company failed to
disclose the problems with the loans that cost the federal government millions
of dollars when they went bad, federal lawyers contend.
Events/webinars/conferences you should know about.
Digital mortgages have been a major topic over the past
year, including sessions at MBA Annual 2016, Independent Mortgage Bankers
Conference three weeks ago in CA, and the TMBA conference Jan 30-31. The
electronic mortgage transaction process (both origination and closing) has been
talked about for nearly 15 years, with the first eNote transaction in early
2000's. In 2016, MERS eRegistry recorded 5,212 eNote registrations,
with New York Community Bank as the leader.
Originators and Warehouse Lenders recognize an electronic
mortgage process is within the realm of possibility. The CFPB Loan
Estimate and Closing Disclosure being moved from a paper process to a digital
process, opening the door for greater efficiency, which is less labor intensive. Street
Resource Group has been hosting a monthly eWarehouse Workgroup to support
industry and education, and broaden the investor market for acceptance and
purchase of eNotes by facilitating warehouse lender adoption. SRG
encourages collaboration and participation from all the counterparties to
develop industry standards for eWarehouse business processes, based on the
electronic exchange of data and documents, and identify issues and problems
which are barriers to adoption. If you are interested in participating, please
contact info@ewarehouseworkgroup.com
or Brenda Clem.
MBA Education is hosting a call on February 15th to
discuss the release of the newly revised standard Ginnie Mae Acknowledge
Agreement, a contract among a Ginnie Mae issuer, Ginnie Mae, and a
warehouse lender for a Ginnie Mae MSR collateralized financing if the parties
want Ginnie Mae recognition of the pledge. This call will feature Michael
Drayne, SVP of the Office of Issuer & Portfolio Management at Ginnie Mae
who will discuss specific section changes to the Acknowledgment Agreement and
the reasons for the changes. Click here to register for the event.
There is a critical new Uniform Closing Dataset (UCD) mandate is coming this September.
Join Ellie Mae and Fannie Mae representatives on February 23rd
to find out exactly what's changing, when, and how to prepare your business to
stay efficient and compliant.
On Thursday, February 16th, National MIis offering its Multicultural Outreach to Provide Homeownership
to the African American Community, an educational seminar that will be
presented by Kristin Messerli of Cultural Outreach Solutions and Risha Grant,
CEO and Founder of DiversityConneX.com. This special presentation is brought to
you by our MI University, with a commitment to delivering high quality
educational content to our customers.
National MI is also hosting a March
2nd webinar session on Self-Employed Borrower and Tax Analysis, led by Teresa
Ferman of Indecomm. This special presentation is brought to you by our MI
University, with a commitment to delivering high quality educational content to
our customers. This 2-hour session is designed for originators, processors and
underwriters - or anyone who wants to know the most important facts about calculating
income from a tax return.
If you're near Michigan the MMLA, Southeast Chapter
you can register now for the luncheon on March 6th. The
guest speaker is State Representative Peter J. Lucido who will provide
information on what is happening in Lansing and other initiatives he is working
on. As a regular guest on Sunday Morning news segment "Let It Rip", and
frequent guest of the Frank Beckman WJR radio show, Rep. Lucido is a very
dynamic member of the Michigan legislature.
Join MMLA on March 16th and get the
motivation and information you need to for the Spring Sales Season to take your
production to the next level. Join more than 250 expected attendees at the 2017 Symposium.
Shifting proverbial gears, Adam Smith defined "capital"
as, "That part of a man's stock which he expects to afford him
revenue." As for "market," you can figure that one out.
Although January issuance was off 11% from December's
pace, Ginnie MBS outstanding is at an all-time high. And
with only 24 employees! Okay, just kidding about that, but as of Jan. 31, there
were $1.7865 trillion in GNMA mortgage-backed securities outstanding. (And
there are all of 140 employees.)
Friday U.S. Treasuries and other fixed-income securities,
like those backed by mortgages, took minor losses - I guess because they had
gains earlier in the week. The same institutions were out there selling and
other institutions were out there selling, so the big news was probably that
Federal Reserve Governor Tarullo, the Fed's head of bank supervision,
announcing his resignation, effective April 5. That leaves a total of three
seats open on the Board of Governors. (Governors always vote on monetary policy
decisions.) Rates seem to be treading water for the last few weeks, which is
fine for many as borrowers grow accustomed to these levels. We don't need them
to have sticker shock. As a refresher, the 10-year note closed .125 lower to
yield 2.41%; 5-year notes and agency MBS prices were nearly unchanged or
down/worse a couple ticks.
But this is a brand-spankin' new week. What do we have for
scheduled news? There is zip today and nada on Friday. Tomorrow things kick
into gear with reads on inflation: January PPI and Core PPI, along with several
Fed speakers. Wednesday, we have the MBA's reading on applications for last
week, but also January CPI and Core CPI, February Empire Manufacturing, January
Retail Sales and Retail Sales ex-auto, January Industrial Production and
Capacity Utilization, December Business Inventories, and February's NAHB
Housing Market Index. Thursday are January Housing Starts and Building Permits,
Initial Jobless Claims, and February Philadelphia Fed.
We start the week with rates slightly higher: the
10-year is hovering around 2.44% and current agency MBS prices are worse .125.
No comments:
Post a Comment