Today (Tuesday), while Washington DC “sucks the air out of the room,” welcome to the Autumn Solstice (Equinox) in the U.S., the day when the Sun appears to cross the celestial equator, heading southward. Others know it as halfway between the day with the most sunlight in June and the day with the least (December 22), or when night and day are the same length. What isn’t the “same” are lock volumes. According to Informa Financial Intelligence, August 2020 mortgage rate-lock volume was up 39% YoY but down -6% MoM across all channels, while funded volume increased 39% YoY and 2% MoM. It reports retail lock volume increased 36% YoY and funded volume was up 57% YoY. If yours didn’t, well, catch up! The industry talk continues to revolve around lock volumes (“ops staff can’t take vacations, so we’re breaking policy and rolling vacay into next year”) and about Bloomberg’s story on a potential initial public offering by loanDepot. Not that it necessarily needs the billions… But some argue to strike while the proverbial “iron is hot.”

Broker and Lender Products and Services

Maxwell continues to expand on one of the most impactful features of its digital mortgage platform, its technology-powered outsourced fulfillment services. Maxwell now offers both underwriting and closing services to its already successful processing offering. Designed to provide economic scale for small to midsize lenders, the Maxwell Fulfillment Platform plugs in like the operational unit of any mortgage originator, enabling you to adjust fulfillment capacity to meet market needs. By being a Maxwell customer, we can simplify the handoff, communication, accuracy, and transparency of loans. What's more, all of this efficiency saves costs that we pass on to you, the lender, saving thousands in fulfillment costs monthly. To learn more about Maxwell’s digital platform and tech-powered outsourced capabilities click here or schedule a demo.

Lenders, speed up turn-times by assessing true borrower credit risk & resiliency up-front with the predictive & prescriptive Mortgage Risk & Fairness Score. MRS identifies which loans should be “fast-laned”, and which need a closer look than even DU suggests. It also enables lenders to open the credit box safely, helping the underserved while expanding margins. For FHA this is a must! Lenders, investors, traders, servicers, and insurers can sleep well at night knowing that MRS is helping avoid costly forbearance, delinquency, and default events, while promoting financial inclusion. Bottom line: The Mortgage Risk Score is an easy and inexpensive tool that leverages state-of-the-art AI and ML algorithms, and years of experience, to supercharge risk management, sales, operations, secondary, and servicing. It's plug-n-play, validated (top 10 bank) and vetted (CFPB, OCC, Fed). Click for more information.

Is your servicing operation held captive by aging systems and point solutions that create fragmented processes? In today’s world of evolving technology, the power of workflow automation is real. Data is advancing business process automation quickly and effectively by leveraging expanded access to resources, machine learning capabilities and bulk processing optimization. Understanding the value of data since its inception, Clarifire uses notable industry resources to enhance its proven CLARIFIRE automated workflow application. CLARIFIRE helps mortgage servicers remove the chaos of process fragmentation, circumvent antiquated system issues, and gain access to a fluid, seamless application that offers fast and easy displays of critical data. Click here to read about the benefits that can be realized when you leverage data in your automated business processes, rules administration and decisioning. If your organization is interested in achieving a new level of innovation with a proven industry provider, turn to CLARIFIRE, Truly BRIGHTER AUTOMATION.

Can your current POS provider quantify the ROI it delivers? Do you suspect that if it did, the results would be rather disappointing? SimpleNexus is so confident in its ability to deliver above the rest it has launched a self-service ROI calculator that compares its performance to other major POS providers. Just plug in a few numbers, like annual units and volume, and it’ll tell you how SimpleNexus lines up. Try the calculator out now and request an in-depth ROI analysis. It only takes 30 seconds!

Events and Training From Your La-Z-Boy

Today’s the day. Blend’s virtual summit kicks off at 9 a.m. PDT and if you’ve been wondering how your organization can become digitally agile, you won’t want to miss this. Find out what it takes to be able to respond to market conditions, regulatory changes, and rising consumer expectations swiftly and efficiently. Join the summit for keynote addresses, industry and customer panels, and product roadmaps to hear how Blend executives and leaders across mortgage and consumer banking are tackling today’s challenges. Join the summit.

Just in time for 2021 business planning: XINNIX is presenting a free live executive roundtable event on Wednesday, October 7 at 1 PM ET for all mortgage industry leaders. “Building the Next Generation of Mortgage Professionals” is part of XINNIX’s quarterly Leadership Lessons series and will feature leaders from three of the nation’s top mortgage companies: Regions Bank EVP of Lending, Bob Cabrera; HomeBridge Financial Services EVP & Partner, Rick Floyd; and Caliber Home Loans AVP Program Director and Head of Caliber University, Lauren Havins. Moderated by XINNIX Founder & CEO Casey Cunningham, these leaders will discuss how their organizations are developing new talent to meet the industry’s short-term capacity challenges and ensure long-term organizational success. Registrants will have an opportunity to submit questions in advance or can ask the panelists during the live session. Reserve your seat today!

The California MBA's Western Secondary Market Conference is this week, virtually, September 23 and 24. To thank you for being a loyal subscriber, I am offering you a complimentary conference registration! Use this link and enter the promo code Chrisman to get your free registration. Hear from the star of Undercover Billionaire and CEO of Kind Lending, Glenn Stearns, as well as the CEO Panel, mPower Leadership Panel, Capital Markets Update, and a discussion about the latest trends in Mergers and Acquisitions. 

As a reminder, the Mortgage Banker Association offers scores of training events and webinars. And the grand national convention is October 19-21.

MGIC’s upcoming webinar calendar includes, “Up Your Game to Score Approvals Sooner!”, offered Oct. 6. “During this 30-minute session, we’ll review several scenarios to avoid documentation delays at the closing table. MGIC offers complimentary webinars every month to help customers succeed in today’s mortgage insurance industry.” View the full MGIC training calendar at mgic.com/training.

The Mortgage Girlfriends is hosting a Women’s Retreat Mastermind on October 22 and 23rd virtually. Women can register at www.mortgagegirlfriends.com and we have amazing content planned, as well as, special gifts. The theme is Maximizing Your Business and planning for next year, as well as Maximize You and not to forget to take care of yourself with some tricks on how to fit it all in. A TexX Speaking Coach is going to share how to improve your public speaking skills for video, a top producer is sharing how she manages her calendar and works less than 40 hours a week, along with a master of delegation and how to delegate effectively. We have teamed up with The Marketing Firm who is going to teach them how to utilize social media in all ways to leverage for next year.

Capital Markets

Ginnie Mae announced restrictions on the pooling of adjustable-rate mortgages with rates indexed to the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), which are effective with security issuances dated on or after January 21, 2021. This guidance follows Ginnie Mae's adoption of the recommendations of the Alternative Rates Reference Committee (ARRC) relating to fallback language for new issuances of LIBOR floating rate securities.

Economic data over the last week mostly failed to meet analysts’ expectations but one could argue that it’s exponentially more difficult to forecast during this time. Despite the “misses” at the headline levels, the details of the data were generally positive. Industrial production increased just 0.4 percent in August, however July was revised nearly a half point higher meaning the overall level of production was more or less in line with market expectations. Retail sales also fell short of expectations but the total level of retail sales hit a record high. Despite the record high, spending has shifted so not every component of retail sales has recovered to their pre-pandemic levels. Receipts at bars and restaurants remain 16 percent below their pre-crisis peak and in many places, bars remain completely closed. Grocery stores continue to see a surge in sales as consumers shifted spending away from restaurants. Gas station sales remain 14.8 percent below their pre-crisis peak as many people continue to work from home and gas prices remain low. Builder confidence remains high as single family housing starts have risen for the past four months and the trend is expected to continue in September with low mortgage rates driving sales and prices higher. 

Bond markets yesterday traded sharply “risk-off.” There was pressure from falling equities, heightened coronavirus shutdown concerns from Europe, and talk out of Washington that investors should prepare for the likelihood Congress won’t pass a second bailout. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 8 basis points to 6.93 percent of servicers’ portfolio volume as of September 13, 2020. According to MBA’s estimate, 3.5 million homeowners are in forbearance plans.

Today’s economic calendar is already underway with the Philadelphia Fed’s nonmanufacturing indices. Later are existing home sales in August and the Richmond Fed Manufacturing and Services, Revenues Indices for September. Markets will also receive a heavy slate of Fed speakers: Chicago’s Evans, Chair Powell (along with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin) before the House Financial Services Committee, Richmond’s Barkin, and Atlanta’s Bostic. The Desk will provide its largest support for the week, $6.7 billion across three operations with targets including up to $2.9 billion UMBS30 2 percent and 2.5 percent as well as another for $1 billion GNII 2.5 percent. We begin the day with Agency MBS prices a tad better and the 10-year’s yield unchanged at 0.67 percent.

Employment

Home Point Financial had 96% of its Associates working from home since mid-March and still increased its loan volume by nearly 60% from Q1 to Q2. While growing volume and building capacity are focal points, the company’s top priority is the care and well-being of its Associates and their families. With many people pulling double-duty, working remotely while supporting young virtual learners, Home Point committed to providing laptops, tablets, or Chromebooks to all Associates with kids (kindergarten through age 22) that are attending school virtually from home. If you want to be part of a team that makes your career, and your family, a priority, apply for one of Home Point's hundreds of open positions or email your resume directly to John Eite.

On Q Financial is seeking an experienced VP of Consumer Direct, a qualified candidate that has a proven track record in consumer direct lending. The ideal candidate is an energetic, transformational leader with an exceptional sales mind capable of cultivating effective relationships in order to collaborate cross-functionally to innovatively scale the call center, convert organic leads, and support portfolio retention. This is an exciting opportunity to join a highly entrepreneurial company with a $2 billion and growing servicing portfolio committed to $100 million and more in funded monthly volume. The VP of Consumer Direct will help lead and bring this vision to life! Relocation not required. Interested candidates please email your resume to Shane Miller. 

PrimeLending’s empowering culture wins again! For the sixth straight year, Great Place to Work and FORTUNE have honored the powerhouse national lender as one of the 2020 Best Workplaces for Women, this year ranking 16. Awarded based on survey results from 4.9 million employees nationwide, PrimeLending ranked highly in trustworthy leaders, treating people with respect, fair workplace decision making and team camaraderie. We’re proud to be home to so many talented women, who represent 56% of all our company officers and 65% of our total workforce. This recognition comes on the heels of earning a spot on this year's Best Workplaces for Millennials in August. Earning rave reviews for our culture comes as no surprise, 94% of our employees say PrimeLending is a great place to work compared to 59% of employees at a typical U.S.-based company. If you’re ready to join an award-winning team, contact Nic Hartke.

Operations and Sales… are you managing your career, or just managing your day? “Joining Thrive is absolutely the best career move I have ever made.” This is the most common sentiment expressed by new hires after their first months with the company. After laying an incredible foundation of best-of-breed technology solutions, perfecting their Quality & Efficiency workflow, and building one of the best leadership teams in the industry; Thrive Mortgage is crushing production numbers and is positioned to maintain this growth for years to come.  “Our Operations Staff is unmatched.  It’s not just that we have great tools, but we have the best people,” stated Kindra Miller, Business Development Manager for Thrive.  “When you have great leadership like Selene Kellam and her team, it simply breeds a culture of excellence from the top down.” To inquire about open positions within Thrive, contact Kindra to begin a confidential conversation.