I don’t know if there is going to be a pro football season or not, with lines of scrimmage & heavy breathing 11 inches apart for hundreds of linemen every week, but here’s The Onion’s take on The Best Cities To Live In For Fans Of Rock And Roll Museums and The Cleveland Browns.” Regardless of city, or population trends, our industry has hundreds of statistics thrown at us every week, including the Census Bureau telling us that there are 330 million people living in the United States. LBA Ware released summary statistics on the state of mortgage industry comp in the second quarter of 2020. As one would expect, significant refinance volume growth in Q2 2020 compared to Q2 2019 contributed to a 59% year-over-year increase in total LO commissions paid over the three-month period, as the average LO originated and funded 63% more volume in Q2 2020 ($2.4M per month).
Lender and Broker Products and Services
Calling all Marketing Managers: How difficult is it to produce compliant marketing that is targeted, localized, and customizable, while meeting your Loan Officer’s deadlines? Usherpa’s Launch Pad Custom Email Wizard and branded Marketing Portal were designed for corporate marketing teams so you can create materials that align with your unique company vision and brand strategies. Why switch between multiple systems to build content on demand when you can seamlessly design email campaigns within Usherpa CRM? Usherpa is your one-stop shop to getting the right messages out at the right time. Effortlessly build a library of collateral that is directly linked to all your Loan Officers’ databases and Loan Origination System. Don’t hesitate, learn how Usherpa can leverage your efforts while saving you an impressive amount of time.
Here’s an example of a technology vendor hitting it out of the park. Capacity, a new kind of helpdesk powered by artificial intelligence, empowers mortgage professionals with instant knowledge and automated workflows. Mortgage professionals turn to Capacity to effortlessly tap into key systems to provide real-time access throughout the entire loan life cycle. Borrowers are benefitting from a superior customer experience with 24/7 automated support. Capacity connects apps, mines documents, captures tacit knowledge, and automates processes, all through a mobile-friendly chat interface. Deploy within 30 days. Request a demo to learn more.
Join Data Facts for an on-demand webinar, “Consumer Credit and COVID-19: What Lenders Should Know”. In it, we’ll discuss the CARES Act and the credit implications of forbearance, as well as some helpful strategies you can pass down to your borrowers to protect their credit. Plus, we sit down for an exclusive interview with NCRA Executive Director Terry Clemans as he shares his industry insight on what to expect coming out of forbearance. The best part? You can watch it right now. Click here to stream the broadcast.
Mortgage lenders are used to operating under dynamic market conditions, fluctuating interest rates, stringent regulatory oversight, and evolving customer expectations. They must now contend with an additional unprecedented challenge – the impact of COVID-19. The time to pivot to Intelligent Automation is NOW. Intelligent Automation enables you to drive unparalleled efficiencies, productivity and scale while freeing up valuable resources to better support your customers across the mortgage lifecycle. It fuses Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and extraction capabilities such as OCR and NLP, to automate end-to-end processes and rapidly synthesize both structured data along with unstructured information. The result: a machine-first ecosystem that enables straight-through-processing, enhanced speed, efficiency and quality, and elevated customer experience, creating competitive advantage in a highly volatile marketplace. To learn more, download Sourcepoint’s eBook ‘Partnering for Success: 4 Steps to Getting Intelligent Automation Right in the Mortgage Industry’.
Nothing is Certain Except Death and…
Let’s take a look at a sample of IRS-related announcements. The tax law changes implemented by the current administration impacted the mortgage deductibility. The IRS even gives us a handy-dandy guide about deducting mortgage-related expenses.
Recall that the IRS posted a clarification regarding the effective date of the new taxpayer consent and disclosure requirements needed to obtain and share IRS tax transcript information with investors, servicers and due diligence firms. The clarification notes that Section 2202 of Taxpayer First Act "applies only to disclosures made by the IRS after December 28, 2019, and any subsequent redisclosures and uses of such information disclosed by the Internal Revenue Service after December 28, 2019." With this clarification, seasoned loans, and loans in the pipeline with transcript information received from the IRS prior to December 28, are not covered by the new consent requirement. The MBA expects the GSEs will update their published guidance to reflect this IRS clarification. MISMO, which worked to develop consent language that would meet the requirements of Section 2202, has updated its FAQs page to reflect this much-needed IRS clarification.
Some are aware of the Taxpayer Consent Law. Rick Hill wrote, “I highlighted a couple items surrounding MISMO for which I will provide clarification. MISMO created sample language to help industry comply with the law, but we did not create a form. Lenders, document providers and others are either creating their own new form using the language or adding it to existing forms. And use of the MISMO language is free to use by anyone, not just MISMO members. MISMO’s ability to quickly develop the sample taxpayer consent language was made possible by the funding granted to MISMO by MBA earlier this year. Here is a link to MISMO’s resource page on Taxpayer Consent Language that includes responses for a number of frequently asked questions.”
Mountain West Financial will again require IRS transcripts where applicable. (Remember when the IRS was backlogged?) Turn times are extended well over typical turn times of 5 – 7 business days. MWF began requiring transcripts to be in loan files for loans funded on or after June 12.
At one time IRS offices responsible for providing tax return transcripts were closed but are now open. Recall that Wells Fargo Funding removed the temporary tax return waiver and alternative documentation requirements, reinstating its published tax return transcript requirements for all loans, with a temporary allowance for Sellers to provide tax return transcripts up to 45 days post purchase to accommodate expected IRS processing delays. During that temporary allowance, loans that require tax return transcripts under its published policy were purchased without tax return transcripts. Additionally, Wells added post-funding conditions requiring the transcripts within 45 days.
It wasn’t that long ago when investors had to react to the IRS’ closure. For example, remember this? “Due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19, on March 27, 2020 the IRS suspended the acceptance of new Income Verification Express Services (IVES). Temporary lending requirements are being implemented pertaining to Flagstar’s 4506-T Execution Requirements and will remain in effect until the IRS reinstates acceptance of new 4506T form submissions.”
In the past Lakeview Wholesale posted Announcement W2020-02 providing updated guidance regarding IRS tax returns and tax transcript requirements.
PennyMac had issued a reminder regarding tax transcripts in its Announcement 20-06.
AmeriHome clarified that personal IRS transcripts will be required on non-delegated loans for each tax year with qualifying income documentation. If personal transcripts are not yet available, an IRS or vendor document showing that no transcript is available is required. For Fannie Mae DU Loans, if all of the borrower’s income was validated by the DU validation service, the Seller is not required to obtain transcripts for that borrower. For Freddie Mac LPA Loans, if all of the borrower’s income was Employment Income and received an income representation and warranty result of “Eligible” on the Last Feedback Certificate via Automated Income Assessment, the Seller is not required to obtain transcripts for that borrower. AmeriHome’s Non-Delegated Overlay Matrix was updated with this announcement.
As previously announced, Idaho’s “Mortgage Company Act” is scheduled to be repealed on July 1, 2020. Among the sections of this Act is Idaho Code Ann. § 26-2807, subsection (1) of which requires a mortgage company to “conspicuously and specifically, disclose to each borrower all contractual provisions relating to reserve accounts, impound accounts, escrow accounts, or any other account maintained for the borrower in order to pay for property taxes, property insurance or private mortgage insurance. Read more information provided by docutech.
Capital Markets
Much like my cat Myrtle, who shrugs off any suggestion that she change from Fancy Feast to dry kibble, Treasuries and MBS yesterday shrugged off the U.S.-China tensions that continued to ratchet throughout the week. China warned the U.S. yesterday to think "carefully" about where their relationship was heading after the U.S. ordered the closure of a Chinese consulate in Houston a couple days ago. Beijing will reportedly respond with either cuts to the U.S. mission in Hong Kong or the closure of a U.S. consulate in Chengdu. China's relations with the U.K. are equally fraught. In the afternoon, Secretary of State Pompeo called on the Chinese people to push for a change in the CCP's behavior, which drew accusations from China that the U.S. is fomenting an uprising. The yield curve flattened on the news, with longer duration Treasuries rallying, including the 10-year ending the day -1 bp, and MBS tagging along.
In Washington, Senate Republicans reportedly reached an agreement with the White House on another $1 trillion fiscal stimulus proposal, which bodes well for sustained low mortgage rates. As far as economic releases went, initial jobless claims for the week ending July 18 registered the 18th straight week above one million, but more troubling was an increase well above expectations as states paused or rolled back reopenings due to the coronavirus. Fortunately, continuing claims for the week ending July 11 decreased by 1.1 million. Separately, the Conference Board's Leading Economic Index increased in June but missed expectations and is nearly nine percent below its pre-COVID February reading.
There won’t be much going on today as far as market-moving economic data to close the week, just the “2nd tier” preliminary July Markit PMIs and June New Home Sales. Today’s two MBS FedTrade operations see the Desk purchase much less than the rest of the week, starting with up to $3.4 billion starting with up to $873 million UMBS15 2 percent and 2.5 percent followed by $2.5 billion UMBS30 2 percent through 3 percent. We begin the day with Agency MBS prices worse/down a few ticks (32nds) and the 10-year yielding .59 after closing yesterday at 0.58 percent.
Employment
“As a mortgage professional, we know how important it is that you work for a company that can help your career thrive in the current environment, as well as into the future. Citizens Bank is that company and is looking for experienced Mortgage Loan Officers and Sales Managers, as well as Wholesale Account Executives and Operations colleagues to join our winning team. In June, all three of our production channels (Retail, Wholesale and Correspondent) reached new monthly funding highs, continuing our proven track record of growth. Additionally, in Q2 we proudly welcomed more than 200 colleagues to the Home Mortgage team! If you’re ready to take your career to the next level at a growing company with staying power, don’t miss this opportunity! Visit jobs.citizensbank.comto see all of our available positions.”
Eric Burgess brings Goldwater Bank’s difference to Southern California. When Eric Burgess first looked into joining Goldwater Bank, he was surprised at the difference. “At every company I worked, it was 10% mortgages, 90% everything else. At Goldwater, it’s completely reversed. There’s tremendous autonomy to set up your own markets to make you most competitive. You set your own fees and margins and are given the keys on who to hire and grow like you need to grow.” Goldwater Bank offers an appealing platform with flexible autonomy from consumer mortgages, with competitive pricing, to one-time close construction programs, supported by an open and dynamic leadership team that is “as far from corporate as you can imagine… they just want you to succeed.” Burgess has found a new home and reinvigorated spirit to make a difference in the lives of his clients. The Escondido office of Goldwater Bank, located at 500 La Terraza Blvd., can be reached at 858-504-7771 or goldwaterbankca.com.
GO Mortgage continues to experience tremendous growth in 2020 and is actively hiring team members with a consumer-direct background who are familiar with lead sources such as Bankrate and NerdWallet. Additionally, GO Mortgage's Construction Division continues to grow and break production records with its Single Close Construction program. The division is adding team members with Single Close Construction (OTC) experience in FHA, VA, USDA, and Fannie Mae products. GO Mortgage continues to expand its eligible builder network and is now over 500 builders. GO Mortgage is looking for skilled professionals to disposition and cultivate these relationships. If interested, please reach out to Andrea Knorr, Business Development Manager.
A profitable, well-capitalized, regional full-service independent retail mortgage banker is looking for an established Regional Production Manager to help create and develop mortgage origination branch opportunities in the midwestern part of the country, Colorado, Arizona, Kansas, and New Mexico markets. We are searching for an outstanding talent and proven retail sales leader with a demonstrated track record of hiring and managing multiple production offices across several states. We offer an entrepreneurial sales support environment, FNMA/FHLMC/GNMA direct seller/servicer/issuer status and are well-positioned to compete for more growth with state-of-the-art operations/support technology and a company-wide commitment to providing exemplary customer service. The Regional Production Manager will report to the CEO. If interested in the next step, please send a confidential resume and qualifications to Chrisman LLC’s Anjelica Nixt.
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