Tag: finance

The Federal National Mortgage Association has made changes to its policies on frozen credit reports, premium pricing and Texas home-equity loans.

When premium pricing is utilized, the lender credit can’t be used towards the borrower’s down payment or reserves and shouldn’t exceed the borrower’s closing costs.

Also, lender credits derived from premium pricing aren’t considered an interested party contribution even when the lender is an interested party to the transaction.

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From:: Financing

Despite weakening housing permits and completed construction, new construction rose last month. In the West, new construction soared as completed construction plummeted.

In permit-issuing places, there were 96,500 privately owned single-family housing units that were authorized by building permits during November.

Last month’s activity brought the number of building permits issued from Jan. 1 through Nov. 30 of this year to 1.1673 million.

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From:: Financing

A modest improvement was reported for the rate of serious delinquency on first mortgages. But the rate took an ugly turn on second mortgages.

The Composite Consumer Credit Default Index indicated that delinquency of at least 90 days on automobile loans, bank cards and mortgages was 0.89 percent in November.

Although the 90-day rate dipped a basis point compared to the previous month, there was a 2-basis-point increase versus the same 30-day period last year.

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From:: Financing

A new consumer lending chief at Wells Fargo & Co. will now oversee 115,000 employees and the biggest mortgage originator in the country.

Last month, the San Francisco-based bank-holding company fired Franklin Codel, the organization’s head of consumer lending since October 2016.

While Wells Fargo said that Codel was dismissed as a result of acting in a manner contrary to company policies and expectations for senior leaders, published reports cited disparaging comments to a terminated employee about the regulatory system.

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From:: Financing

Over the past month, mortgage-related businesses to close or fail include a bank, a credit union and the wholesale division of a large bank.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Friday seized control of Washington Federal Bank for Savings and shut it down.

The Chicago-based financial institution was founded in 1913 and had just 16 employees on its payroll as of Sept. 30.

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From:: Financing

PHH Corp. has sold off one of its operating units in a transaction that generated an estimated nearly $100 million in gross proceeds.

Back in February, the Mount Laurel, New Jersey-based organization disclosed that it had reached an agreement to sell assets owned by PHH Home Loans.

The transaction, which was anticipated to generate cash proceeds of $92 million before estimated transaction and other costs, was expected to include a series of interim asset sale closings.

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From:: Financing

A former executive who was sued by Guaranteed Rate Mortgage has counter-sued the company alleging senior executives manipulated gain-on-sale revenues to avoid paying him the full amount owed to him.

A lawsuit was filed last month by the Chicago-based company against Joseph Caltabiano, its former senior vice president of mortgage lending. He allegedly conspired to recruit a group of employees for a rival.

Caltabiano left the home lender last month to join BeMortgage, a division of Bridgeview Bank Group. Guaranteed Rate alleges he coordinated with senior Bridgeview executives to recruit its Chicago-area team.

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From:: Financing

The nation’s home builders have grown more confident than at any time since Bill Clinton was president. Deregulation was cited as one factor for the optimism.

The seasonally adjusted Housing Market Index landed at 74 for December. That turned out to be the highest it has been since it was 75 in July 1999.

An index of more than 50 is an indication that more home builders view current conditions as good than those who view them as poor.

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From:: Financing

An executive who handled warehouse advances for a mortgage banker in the Empire State has been indicted and arrested. The company collapsed amid warehouse-related litigation.

In an indictment that was unsealed on Thursday in a federal court in Manhattan, New York, the Department of Justice accuses John Reimer of defrauding warehouse lenders.

According to indictment, Reimer, 60, was employed as a vice president and comptroller of a Nassau County, New York-based mortgage-lending institution.

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From:: Financing

The monthly number of government-sponsored enterprise mortgages refinanced turned sharply higher even as government-supported refinances fell to a new low.

In October, primary mortgage originators refinanced 142,687 single-family loans that are backed or owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

That was a significant increase from the 128,738 GSE loans refinanced during the previous month and the most refinances since March 2017, when there were 143,455.

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From:: Financing