Even though the housing market is caught in what could turn out to be an ugly downward spiral, mortgage bankersof all stripes funded an impressive $865 billion in loans in the second quarter, a 4% improvement over the sameperiod last year. The figures are courtesy of National Mortgage News and the new 2Q edition of theQuarterly Data Report. But amid the decent performance is carnage. Two Wall Street owned lenders - AuroraLoan Services, and EMC Mortgage - saw volumes fall 32% and 24%, respectively. But the biggest loserin the quarter appears to be National City, which reported that fundings dropped a stunning 77% to $3.5billion. For the full story see Monday's NMN. To subscribe to NMN call: (800) 221-1809...
The QDR also found that Wells Fargo Home Mortgage smoked the competition in the subprime correspondentchannel. Wells bought $20.9 billion in B&C loans during the second quarter. To order the QDR email:
Well, it looks as though former Fannie Mae officials won't be doing a 'perp walk' after all. In caseyou were at the beach this past week, the Department of Justice informed the Congressionally chartered mortgagegiant that it has discontinued its investigation of the GSE in regard to its $10.6 billion accounting scandal.No criminal charges will be brought against the company at all. The obvious question is this: does that mean chargesmight be brought against any individuals, as in former top officers? DOJ will not confirm or deny that any individualswere ever the subject of a criminal probe in the case. And if the "accounting side" of the investigationhas been discontinued that would imply that no charges will be brought whatsoever against individuals. In otherwords, former chairman and CEO Franklin Raines, and former chief financial officer Timothy Howardcan start sleeping at night again. Of course, DOJ is still investigating whether the two men perjured themselvesbefore Congress in the fall of 2004 when they denied manipulating accounting rules to make earnings targets. Bydropping the probe does that mean DOJ believes that no manipulation occurred? Or was it "civil" manipulationversus, say, "criminal" manipulation. Whatever the case, DOJ's decision to scuttle the investigationcan be viewed as a major victory for Messrs. Raines and Howard. Their contention that the whole accounting messwas merely a disagreement over arcane FASB rules no longer looks so suspect. It also could hurt civil cases beingbrought against the company. Stay tuned...
Meanwhile, former Fannie Mae PR man David Jeffers has launched his own public relations firm. CalledIndelium it caters to the financial services market. Mr. Jeffers left Fannie's PR department several yearsago, before the "GSE Wars" truly turned ugly. He managed a Fannie "partnership" office in NorthernVirginia before leaving the company in early 2006...
Now that WMC Mortgage is owned by General Electric the company has stopped reporting its non-conformingloan production and servicing numbers to National Mortgage News...
WASHINGTON NEWS: Citing the blurring lines between prime and non-prime lending, the Mortgage BankersAssociation and National Home Equity Mortgage Association have decided to merge their trade groups.MBA's 2005/06 chairwoman Regina Lowrie called the merger a "natural progression." (Ms. Lowrie recentlyannounced that she was selling her stake in her own mortgage company.) No word yet on whether the merger will haveany affect on MBA getting Jethro Tull to play next year's convention.
MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Clayton Holdings has named Bruce Legan senior managing director of itsconsulting services business. Mr. Legan joins the firm from Ernst & Young. Genworth Financial said RichardMcKenney has resigned as chief financial officer to take a similar job at Sun Life Financial in Toronto.Residential Capital Corp. appointed Ken Fischbach managing director, investor relations.
DATA NEWS: NMN recently updated its Mortgage Broker Database product, which tracks thenation's top loan brokerage firms, including top producers at those shops. For more info email:
