What We're Hearing

Business appears to be rocking at Nexstar Financial Corp., St. Louis, a provider of outsourced mortgage services. Founder and chief executive Richard (Rick) Thornberry visited with National Mortgage News this past week, bringing the news that he had recently hired Tom Wind to be the firm's chief financial officer. Tom joined the privately held Nexstar ( KKR is one of its chief backers) from Citicorp Mortgage, which like Nexstar, is based in St. Louis. Tom, like Rick, is also an alumnus of Prudential Home Mortgage which was sold to Norwest Mortgage (now Wells Fargo Home) in the mid 1990s. (Rick began toying with the Nexstar concept when he left Citicorp Mortgage in 1998.) So, how good is business at Nexstar? This year, its first full year of operation, it anticipates funding more than $1 billion in home mortgages. Roughly 75% of its production is conventional. ( Fannie Mae is a key business partner for the upstart.) By year-end, Nexstar -- which can fund in its own name or that of its clients -- hopes to have a "run rate" of at least $2 billion a year...

Some banks love mortgages and some banks hate mortgages. Those that fall into the latter complained about the mortgage industry's low profit margins. So, instead of making residential mortgages, these mortgage-haters dove into sexy businesses like corporate lending -- like lending to WorldCom and other corporate high-flyers. Mega-banks that could suffer credit losses, thanks to WorldCom, include PNC Financial, Mellon and Fleet. Two of the three -- PNC and Fleet -- exited the residential mortgage business within the past year, selling their firms to Washington Mutual. A new report on WorldCom by RBC Capital Markets, notes, "Credit problems will increase for the banking industry which will likely lead to lower bank stock prices for the large corporate lenders." I wonder if these banks would like their mortgage companies back?…

HomEq Servicing Corp. (HomEq), a subsidiary of Wachovia, has hired Richard (Rick) Lee as its marketing director and executive vice president. Lee joins the Wachovia unit from Fairbanks Capital where he served as executive vice president of business development. HomEq has more than 1,000 employees...

Union Planters has purchased ALLTEL's Advanced Lending Solution (ALS) Comprehensive Origination Manager for its origination business...

More bad news for FM Watch? Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, and 60 other White House staff members will volunteer their time to build a home being sponsored by the Homeownership Alliance on Saturday June 29. As part of President Bush's "Call to Service," White House staffers will help the Colindres family of Virginia build their own home through Habitat for Humanity International, a Homeownership Alliance member. Homeownership Alliance is funded by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, among others. It would appear that the executive branch, increasingly, is warming up to the GSEs...