Last night in Texas I had dinner with Seattle AE Bryson Bede and regional manager Dennis Waller from Parkside Lending. The discussion was focused on trends in wholesale lending and the habits of top AEs, but included the fact that, party politics aside, political orientation aside, forecasts on the victor aside, we have over five more months of presidential election news dominating the press and news stories. Time flies, but... five more months! Ugh.

Yesterday the commentary posted some updates on non-QM lending. According to Garth Graham of STRATMOR, the Non-QM market has been primarily served by banks putting loans in portfolio for their best bank customers. Very little Non-QM has been available for smaller banks or independent mortgage bankers, making it hard for Loan Originators to serve their market. To further understand the market's appetite for this a new set of non-QM products being offered STRATMOR is conducting a free survey. This survey is focused on a specific set of Non-QM products with higher interest rates (typically 1.5% or higher than conventional products) that are available to borrowers who can't qualify for conventional financing and lender's plans for offering is type of product, and any obstacles to successfully selling such a product in your market. There is no fee to take the survey which is open through the month of June. All participants receive summary level results and the survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete.

There are certainly changes in mortgage-related technology tools and vendor news!

"From loan origination to servicing, the push is now greater than ever to streamline operations to make procedures safer and easier for borrowers and lenders, without compromising compliance efforts. One of the newest advancements is the ability to gather mortgage-qualifying documents, such as W-2s, pay stubs and bank statements, on behalf of borrowers through account-linking technology." So wrote Mike Romano with start-up Lendsnap. "Lendsnap is streamlining mortgage originations, and making it easier and safer for borrowers/lenders to acquire and share qualifying documentation during a mortgage application."

From PCLender's Lionel Urban comes, "It used to be that small and mid-sized lenders didn't have access to the same technology as larger lenders, even though their needs are largely the same in terms of streamlining operations and ensuring compliance. PCLender has stepped up to the plate with a solution that levels the playing field for small to medium lenders, or those that fund 50 to 1,000 loans a month. I've deliberately chosen to hire former mortgage bankers, who understand the impact of not meeting a sales contract deadline, missing a lock delivery or working through a repurchase agreement. PCLender focuses on small to midsized lenders, who have been under-served and may often be at a competitive disadvantage with their larger counterparts.

Strategic Compliance Partners (SCP) is offering a new platform, ShareDiligence, designed to revolutionize the way mortgage lenders manage their relationships with third-party vendors. Developed in conjunction with Offit Kurman, a leading law firm in the Mid-Atlantic region, ShareDiligence enables users to share the results and costs of due diligence through online community-based portal. "After lenders add vendors to the site (accomplished simply by providing an email address) SCP obtains signed agreements and initiates industry-specific vendor questionnaires prepared by legal counsel. Once a vendor returns its completed questionnaire, ShareDiligence disseminates the information to lenders and vendors on the system, who agree to link to one another.

Guaranteed Rate announced it launched The Intuitive Loan Finder to help people narrow down their loan options online in only a few clicks. "It is another example of the antiquated lending industry going digital. The Intuitive Loan Finder's online decision logic guides customers through a series of simple questions to understand their unique situation and preferences. Key inputs include the loan type (purchase or refinance), the type of structure (home or condo), the purpose of the property (residence or investment), and expected time frame to keep the property. The Intuitive Loan Finder then analyzes this data to instantly generate a list of loan options with the best matches for each customer's specific needs. Once the consumer finds the perfect loan, they can use Guaranteed Rate's Digital Mortgagesolution which allows people to get approved for a loan online in less than 30 minutes - anytime, anywhere." 

Cloudvirga, the company behind the cloud-based intelligent Mortgage Platform (iMP), is designed to streamline the mortgage process. The platform is digitizing the mortgage industry by leveraging data and deploying an automated workflow to reduce overall cost, increase transparency, and shorten the time it takes to close a loan for both borrowers and lenders. "Cloudvirga's platform is reducing costs for lenders, increasing transparency for borrowers and shortening the time it takes to close a loan for both."

CoreLogic announced the integration of LoanSafe Appraisal Manager on the Ellie Mae Encompass all-in-one mortgage management solution. LoanSafe Appraisal Manager allows lenders to quickly and easily review a loan application's appraisal quality, potential risk of repurchase, valuation accuracy, market risk and more directly from Encompass.  LoanSafe Appraisal Manager provides Encompass users with risk scores using an analytic model that identifies appraisals with the highest potential risk of repurchase by rank-ordering the risk of over-valuation, early payment default, foreclosure and appraisal non-compliance.

Lending & Banking Automation Software, also known as LBA Ware, a provider of compensation automation software for mortgage lenders, recently announced a new preferred partnership with independent mortgage lending cooperative, The Mortgage Collaborative. As a Preferred Partner, LBA Ware will provide The Mortgage Collaborative's growing list of Lender Members access to robust technology solutions that streamline system integration, eliminate dependencies on error-prone spreadsheets, and reduce repetitive manual workflow to help Lender Members achieve operational efficiency and maximize profitability.

And don't forget that about a month ago Black Knight Financial Services (BKFS) announced that it has acquired eLynx, a lending document and data delivery company.

OpenClose an enterprise-class, multi-channel loan origination system (LOS) provider, announced that in conjunction with Mortgage Capital Trading, Inc. (MCT) it has developed a solution that normalizes and extracts a lender's committed loan sale and purchase advice data to be uploaded directly into OpenClose's LenderAssist LOS, thus eliminating significant manual intervention.  Depending on the number of loans that have been executed, time savings can be reduced from days to minutes.

Overture Technologies and ATS Secured announced the launch of the Settlement Coordinator Workstation, a platform which addresses originators' and investors' unsustainable high cost to originate and buy loans.  The solution combines the industry's leading independent automated loan underwriting system with tools to conduct compliance checks, coordinate loan settlement, distribute loan proceeds and secure loan data integrity.

Turning to the bond markets, they've gone quiet again - fine for capital markets folks around the nation. Volatility doesn't help rate locks, pipelines, or hedging. The yield on the 10-year T-Note has been range-bound for most of 2016; yesterday it oscillated in a 5 basis point range, 1.804% to 1.856%, during the session before closing nearer the highs and aiding the tightening of the MBS basis: mortgage prices did well relatively but were still off a shade from Tuesday's close.

Today we've already had the ECB (European Central Bank) garnering early interest with their statement (no change to rates). In this country we've had the May job cuts from Challenger at 7:30am (job cuts dropped by 50% to 30k), followed by May ADP (+173k) and weekly jobless claims (expected about unchanged, they were indeed only down 1k to 267k). The upcoming treasury supply will also be announced for next week's mini-refunding consisting of 3-year, 10-year, and 30-year instruments. We closed Wednesday with the 10-year at 1.84% and in the early going both the 10-year yield and mortgage prices are unchanged.

Jobs and Announcements

In job & personnel news, TPO lender Motive Lending is excited to announce the addition of Rachel (Oanh) To as its new National Sales Manager. Oanh is an industry veteran with over 15 years of management experience. "Her accomplishments throughout her career and proven track record of building companies from the ground up is nothing short of amazing. With the addition of Oanh and her team, we will see an immediate injection in monthly volume that will lead to more broken records in 2016. We are excited to have her and look forward to her added value," says Cory Tona, EVP. Motive Lending has an immediate need for Account Executives, Underwriters, Funders and Account Managers that want to be part of a fast growing fun company; please contact Recruiting Manager Alex Falas.            

And three thousand miles away, on the retail side, Metro Credit Union is looking for experienced Mortgage Loan Originators (bi-lingual/Spanish), Mortgage Specialists, a Closing Assistant Manager, and a QC Mortgage Underwriter to join its growing team. "We offer a competitive salary and incentive/bonus program as well as a generous benefit package.

Mortgage Professionals Needed!! Metro Credit Union is the largest state chartered credit union in Massachusetts. We are a not for profit financial cooperative which is owned by and operated for its members. In keeping with the credit union philosophy of "people helping people," Metro offers our members a wide range of low-cost financial products and exceptional service. Confidential inquiries should be directed to Erin Stewart directly at estewart@metrocu.org.

Denise Sinclair, Regional Mortgage Sales Manager for NY at Peoples United Bank is expanding and hiring talented Mortgage Account Officers/ Loan Officers in New York. Positions are currently available for Westchester, Nassauand Suffolk Counties. As an Assistant Vice President- Mortgage Account Officer/Loan Officer, you will develop and cultivate self-generated referral sources as well as partnering with retail branch members. Please apply online at www.peoples.com/careers. Peoples United Bank, N.A is headquartered in Bridgeport, CT. Confidential questions can be directed to meand I will pass them along to the appropriate party.

And under the correspondent management banner, Plaza Home Mortgage, Inc. has excellent opportunities for a Vice President of National Correspondent Operational Support in its National Correspondent Branch located in San Diego, CA. Plaza Home Mortgage, Inc., a national mortgage company headquartered in San Diego, has branches throughout the United States and is continuing to grow and expand in anticipation of market demands. Plaza is privately owned and operates as a full service Mortgage Banker, and originates mortgage loans on both a wholesale and correspondent basis. This position is responsible for managing the operational activities within the National Correspondent channel: all support fulfillment functions, Loan Set Up, Sales Support, and Purchase Review. Please contact HR Business Partner Nicole Hubbs.

In today's market, surrounded by a world of mortgage change, Sierra Pacific Mortgage is hosting their educational Market Power series, this time with Dave Savage to discuss the Modern Mortgage Experience. Dave has over 28 years of experience in the industry and will be sharing the simplified the mortgage process today, after the TRID reform. You are invited to join this informative one-hour session by registering here. Webinar will be hosted on June 8 at 10:00 PDT.

Starkey Mortgage announced today two changes to its executive team including J. Douglas Casbon as EVP, National Production Manager and John Steele as SVP/ Southeast Regional Manager.

And congrats to R.J. Arnett who is now the Regional Vice President, Western Region, for Arch Mortgage Insurance Company.

"M&A slowed its pace in 2016 because mortgage volume was strong Q1 (remember Q1 of 2014?) and remains steady", says Dr. Rick Roque (413.297.6895). "This year is expected to be a relatively flat year as compared to 2015, but remember, 2015 ended up higher than every analyst predicted due to the micro-boom in rates in the first quarter of 2015 driving many refinance pipelines and maintaining rates for purchase transactions. But as the summer volume transpires, M&A activity will increase substantially because the multiples are there for the right buyers and sellers."

A leading Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) firm is seeking mortgage banks in the Midwest or Mid-Atlantic markets to be purchased either by selling their stock or assets. Applicable mortgage companies would have closed between $300M-$1.2B in 2015, or on pace to doing so in 2016, either consumer direct or referral partner (Realtor) based originations. No Agency approvals are necessary since they are already in place. If you would like to have your firm acquired, possibly receive a 2-4x after tax multiple, maintain your leadership and control, but rapidly accelerate your growth with significant access to capital, a broad array of new / innovative and non QM products, please contact me for a confidential discussion.