Appraisers run across all types of buildings. But how about this set of buildings, constructed to look like exactly what goes on inside the building?

Regarding The Mortgage Choice Act, Steve H. piped in, "'Mortgage Choice Act.'  That's rich.  More like the 'Realtor's captive title company and captive lender fees relief Act!' It makes sense though - they are the only lobby strong enough to get stuff like this done." Speaking of the Realtors, its President Steve Brown scribed, "The Mortgage Choice Act that passed the U.S. House of Representatives last night importantly redefines a provision in the Ability-to-Repay rules that limits mortgage fees and points to three percent in order for home loans to be considered Qualified Mortgages. The provision unfairly prevents brokers and affiliated lenders from making QM loans because their joint venture services are collectively counted against the cap, while individual services from large retail financial institutions are each capped separately. The Mortgage Choice Act treats affiliated and non-affiliated service providers the same way under the rule while still protecting borrowers from risky loan products. Realtors will continue to advocate for this legislation to clarify the QM rules as it moves to the U.S. Senate."

Yesterday the commentary mentioned Connective Mortgage, and its ties to UG and ownership by AIG (which, as a reminder, paid back its TARP funds). For those with further questions, they can refer directly to the announcement last March on the formation of Connective.

"On or about May 29, 2014, Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. ("LBHI") filed a motion in its bankruptcy, in the Southern District of New York, requesting a court order for mandatory alternative dispute resolution procedures related to indemnification claims of LBHI against hundreds of lenders all across the Country.  LBHI's motion stems out of its recent settlements with both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, concerning at least 11,000 loans for which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac allege unpaid indemnification amounts that are based on various alleged defects.  LBHI's Motion, as well as the parties it may affect, is sweeping and extends to hundreds of lenders, many of whom may have already had settlement agreements in place with LBHI and/or who are presently in the process of litigating against LBHI in other jurisdictions. It is AMLG's belief that such lenders should be carved out of any order approving the mandatory dispute resolution procedures.  Accordingly, AMLG is working with local bankruptcy counsel to respond to LBHI, by the filing deadline of this Thursday, June 12, 2014. If you are one of the many lenders that are being affected by this motion and would like to learn more about AMLG's strategy to address LBHI's shotgun approach to filing the subject motion, please feel free to contact the lead litigation counsel and Managing Member, James Brody, at jbrody@americanmlg. com."

 

Upcoming Events

If you're in the San Francisco area Thursday the 12th, the North Bay CAMP is offering up a luncheon from 11-1:30PM at the Petaluma Sheraton. The speakers are Dawn Lyons (author of "Roomful of Referrals") and yours truly. RSVP here or to Rickreith@dryden-capital. com. (In speaking with Rick Reith, President of North Bay CAMP and Production Director with Dryden Capital Inc., a private lending and investing company in Northern California, the current real estate market has caused a spike in applications for bridge financing.  "We are seeing property owners trying to contend with all cash offers and using bridge financing to be competitive.)

Also in Northern California, the CAMP Silicon Valley Chapter Officers Installation event is June 26th, and features California State BRE Commissioner Wayne Bell officiating the installation of Sonia Huang as its next president as well as the incoming board members. And the venue is very cool: the Mountain Winery located in the hills above the city of Saratoga.

MBA Education is providing an FHA update Webinar on June 12, 2014. Topics include FHA handbook, Electronic Appraisal Delivery and Hawk program. Member price is $199 and non-member price is $249.

The Minnesota Mortgage Association has its June breakfast meeting on the 17th - check it out! You never know who might show up...

CFPB is presenting a FREE webinar. The Federal Reserve Board of Governors invites you to join a webinar presented by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). This "Outlook Live" webinar will take place Tuesday, June 17, 2014, from 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time. This session will be presented by the CFPB, and will be the first of a recurring series of webinars to address the new rule as creditors, mortgage brokers, settlement agents, software developers, and other stakeholders work to implement it over the next year. The first session will provide an overview of the final rule and the new disclosures and address a few basic compliance questions, while subsequent webinars will address specific implementation and interpretive questions about the rule provided to the Bureau.

NMLS will hold a training session, Friday, June 13, from 1- 2:30PM EST on Managing Mortgage Loan Originator (MLO) records. The session will demonstrate the use of the Dashboard, License Item List, and Composite View to help Account Administrators (AAs) and Organization Users (OUs) manage their sponsored MLOs. Additional topics will include the NMLS reports available to AAs and OUs, common requirements for MLOs, and the resources available on the NMLS Resource Center. The webinar will include a live question and answer opportunity.

Are you violating section 8 of RESPA without knowing? On June 17th from 1-3PM in Columbus, Ohio JOIN OMBA and Washington DC attorney, Phil Schulman, K&L Gates, a nationwide expert on Section 8 of RESPA for this presentation. He makes this 2 hour training fun and interesting. This is training that every lender, title company representative and MI representative should have. The cost is $69.95 for members and $99.95 for non-members.

MBA is offering a Servicing Webinar for accounting and finance professionals involved with the real estate finance industry. This webinar will be held Wednesday, June 25, 11AM-1PM EST and the cost is $199 for MBA members and $249 for nonmembers.

Plaza Home Mortgage is hosting a complimentary webinar - Appraisal Review: Analyzing the 1004, presented by Essent Guaranty - Wednesday, June 18.

Sometimes banking and finance can be boring (thanks, Captain Obvious!), but when a foreign bank is attempting to mask their acquisitions of US Treasuries by way of a European clearing house, it doesn't get more interesting than that; or at least that's the official conspiracy theory circulating fringe chat rooms and well known financial publications (disconcerting that these two groups are pretty much reporting the same thing, in the same way?). While searching for answers as to why demand remains so strong for Treasuries, at a time when the Federal Reserve is buying fewer government bonds, some are looking closely at China, which is the largest foreign holder of such debt. By the way, Bill Gross raised his holdings of Treasuries and gov't-related debt in May to 50% (versus 41% in April). It was the highest since 54 percent in July 2010.

Since peaking at $1.3 trillion last November, official Treasury data show China has allowed its holdings of US debt to fall to $1.27 trillion. The interesting thing, however, is that it has occurred even as China's currency has weakened and its foreign exchange reserves have expanded. Many analysts, and reporters, have started to ask what China is doing with its growing accumulation of US dollars if they are not showing up as Treasury purchases in official monthly data? This is where you can put on your tinfoil hat; the answer may lie in Belgium, whose reported pile of Treasuries has more than doubled from $180bn last October to a current level of $381bn. Brussels is the home of Euroclear, the bank-owned central securities depository and custody service, so it is no surprise that some big foreign investors may have switched their Treasury accounts there from other countries. But the scale of buying via Belgium has been so explosive in recent months that it leads analysts to highlight the relationship between the size of China's official US bond holdings versus the overall value of its foreign exchange reserves. As many know, a major drawback of official US data is that a big buyer like China can disguise its buying through another financial center as it did via the UK several years ago.

Okay... some small things happened yesterday in the bond market, but nothing big, so I won't waste your time. Lenders were selling the usual securities they sell every day, the Fed and others were buying the usual securities they buy every day. (Statements like that are why I make the big bucks!) Rates, however, did go up a little - mostly blamed on the 3-yr note auction (even though everyone knows how much is going to be auctioned a week in advance) and agency MBS prices worsened nearly .250 in price.

This morning the MBA confirmed what most lock desks knew from last week: overall applications were up over 10% last week, with refis +11% and purchases were up over 9%.

We will have a $21 billion 10-year Treasury note auction at 7AM Hawaii time, and that's about it. For quantitative folks, the yield on the 10-yr yesterday ended the day at 2.64% and this morning we are at 2.63% and agency MBS prices are better by .125.

 

Jobs

PHH Mortgage is seeking a Director of Capital Markets Investor Development to source and develop non-agency investor relationships to ensure PHH has a comprehensive and competitive product menu on a national basis. This is a great opportunity for a Capital Markets professional looking for a career with a dynamic company that is dedicated to servicing their clients and providing superior service. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin or any other characteristic protected by law.

Spiegel Accountancy Corp is growing and looking for new mortgage clients, and wants to know, "Do you want to be 'best of class' in the GSE market?" One of the compliance requirements to be a seller-servicer is to have a functioning internal audit system. "Setting up the IA system up front helps your firm be seen as a seller-servicer that cares about doing things correctly and using best practices, which in turn lead to your firm's better performance, more business and more revenue. The requirements can seem burdensome and overwhelming because you are an expert seller-servicer, not a compliance system expert. You may be thinking about entering the market and wondering how to meet the complex compliance requirements for internal audit, and have questions." Spiegel Accountancy Corp is a 25-year old San Francisco-based CPA firm that is a well-recognized and highly-respected CPA firm, specializing in the mortgage banking industry. Spiegel Accountancy Corp serves clients nationwide, and can help you establish the internal audit function properly. If you have any questions regarding developing or complying with GSE's internal audit function requirement, contact Henry Chavez at Spiegel Accountancy Corp.

And "if you're tired of working for a company where your boss can't even navigate the origination system, it's time to join the Aspire Revolution. At Aspire Lending, our executive team truly understands the mortgage industry and is willing and able to get in the trenches and do the job of everyone on their team. Are you ready to be part of a true team, with servant leaders who lead by doing? LOs are invited to join the Aspire Revolution." Email Steve Barton for more information.

A quick congrats to Stonegate Mortgage Corporation's Lisa Rogers. She has been appointed to the newly created role of Executive Vice President, Third Party Origination, to lead a consolidated TPO strategic business unit which will include the wholesale and correspondent channels. In this role, she will be responsible for TPO Sales and Operations. She will report to Dan Bettenburg, the president of Stonegate Mortgage.

 

(I imagine that there is some correlation between this, credit scores, and mortgage banking, somehow.)

 

Two Cajun hunters, Boudreaux and Thibodeaux get a pilot to fly them to Canada to hunt moose. They bag six.
As Boudreaux and Thibodeaux start loading the plane for the return trip, the pilot says, "The plane can only take four of those."
The two Cajuns object strongly, "Last year we shot six and the pilot let us put them all on board and he had the same plane as yours."
Reluctantly, the pilot gives in and all six are loaded. 
However, even with full power, the little plane can't handle the load and down it goes - crashes in the middle of nowhere!
A few moments later, climbing out of the wreckage, Boudreaux asks Thibodeaux, "Any idea where we are?"
"I think we're pretty close to where we crashed last year,' says Thibodeaux.