I think that keeping my personal information and passwords on my yellow note pad is safer than putting it “in the cloud.” More than 24 million financial and banking documents related to mortgages and other consumer loans were leaked online due to a server security lapse. Lawyer-up! “Running an Elasticsearch database,” the server had more than a decade’s worth of data, including loan and mortgage agreements, repayment schedules and financial and tax documents. And while we’re talking about big numbers, here’s a headline for you: “Bear Stearns Funds Slap Reed Smith with $500 Million Malpractice Claim” for bungling the chance to seek a major recovery in the wake of the subprime mortgage meltdown.

Lender Products and Services

Designed to simplify the financing process for new home buyers, eliminating the need to obtain both a construction loan and permanent mortgage, AFR Wholesale’s streamlined One-Time Close program is now even better. The improved program offers additional significant benefits including faster turnaround times and a single construction fee, as well as the use of various down payment assistance programs. To further help brokers, correspondents, builders and MH dealers, AFR Wholesale has also announced that it will be providing personalized concierge service to guide originators and their builder/dealer partners throughout the one-time close process. From Manufactured Housing programs to Renovation products including FHA 203(k), USDA Repair Escrow and VA Renovation, AFR is dedicated to helping clients bring families home. In addition to offering unique products and services, AFR provides its business partners with industry-leading technology, professional expertise and continuous opportunities for education. For more information, email sales@afrwholesale.com, call 1-800-375-6071 or visit www.afrwholesale.com.

The Community Home Lenders Association (CHLA) today released a detailed report on Ginnie Mae, urging the agency not to over-react to concerns about financial risk in its supervision of issuers, particularly smaller, community-based IMBs. The Report deals with concerns CHLA first raised last month in Congressional testimony about reports of Ginnie Mae not granting commitment authority requests and raising net worth and liquidity requirements above posted levels for individual issuers. The CHLA Report offers recommendations on how Ginnie Mae should balance its statutory access to mortgage credit responsibilities with prudent supervision. It describes how Ginnie Mae's risk is limited and its financial performance has been strong over the last decade, warning that a Ginnie Mae overreaction could significantly shrink the number of issuers and increase concentration. CHLA's report explains how this could hurt smaller issuers, reduce consumer choice, and increase Ginnie Mae's risk, by concentrating issuance among the largest issuers which pose the greatest risk.

TMS has officially entered the GNMA PIIT buying program. There are less than a handful of buyers of this program in the market, and TMS is excited to add this offering for its partners, as its award-winning subservicing platform SIME enables its continued growth.

Now that the new year is underway, it’s the perfect time to resolve to reduce loan fallout, optimize ROI and capture more closings. CloseCAPTURE, from Credit Plus, is a suite of products designed to help you do just that. And, there’s no time like the present given the issues expected to impact the industry in 2019. CloseCAPTURE was developed to address head-on the five primary challenges lenders face which contribute to loan fallout: 1) reducing credit report costs; 2) qualifying more applicants with credit score issues; 3) preventing approved applicants from taking their business elsewhere; 4) finding more quality leads; and 5) retaining your portfolio. Watch this 3-minute video to learn more about the products available in CloseCAPTURE. To speak to a Credit Plus account executive about this set of solutions and how it can help your lending operation throughout the year, email info@creditplus.com.

Simplify your underwriting process with Loan Product Advisor® asset and income modeler (AIM). Through the expertise of third-party service providers, AIM automates the manual processes of assessing borrower assets and income. AIM reduces the burden of traditional documentation, speeds up the loan origination process and helps you close loans faster. Freddie Mac is working hard to bring you solutions that create efficiencies for your business and improve the borrower experience - giving you a competitive edge. These capabilities are available for Loan Product Advisor submissions and resubmissions on and after December 9, 2018. Gain greater efficiency in your underwriting processes with AIM – get The Freddie EdgeSM.

What’s the mortgage version of “having your cake and eating it too”? Well, thanks to United Wholesale Mortgage, it means having access to superb service, technology, partnership tools…AND price! UWM has dropped its rates across the board — for conventional, government and jumbo — giving the nation’s No. 1 wholesale lender unequaled pricing in the country, to go along with everything else that makes it the most popular wholesale lender among mortgage brokers. UWM has removed all state adjustments and all Loan Level Pricing Adjustments (LLPA) overlays, as well. Now, not only will mortgage brokers enjoy the fastest and easiest experience by working with UWM, they’ll also get their customers unmatched best rates. To learn more, visit www.UWM.com/have-it-all.

Deephaven Mortgage is heating things up this winter with some exciting new changes that will “am·pli·fy” your ability to generate new business during the historically slow winter months. Here are a few enhancements Deephaven has made: 90% & 95% Debt Consolidation options priced significantly better than Cash-out; 50% DTI on all 12 Month/1 Year Alt Doc Products including 12 Month Bank Statements and Loan Amounts to $3MM. Deephaven is in the business of helping originators understand Non-QM. It’s time to get into the product line and get started with Deephaven today. Pricing engines, Identi-Fi tools, and Rate Sheets/ Matrices have been updated, and Deephaven is ready to help you. So, what are you waiting for? Get moving! Contact brokerinfo@deephavenmortgage.com (Wholesale) or sales@deephavenmortgage.com (Correspondent).

As we look at the headwinds that 2019 is likely to challenge lenders with, digital mortgage providers like Maxwell can be impactful tools to drive efficiency for your team. Maxwell is specifically designed for lenders where customization is desired and personalization from the loan officer is critical to achieving a satisfied borrower. Today, the Maxwell team reports that lenders on their platform are closing loans 45% faster than the national average, collecting docs 73% faster, and driving borrower satisfaction up 25%. These numbers highlight how Maxwell increases efficiency, drives agent referrals, and offers true ROI on technology. To experience Maxwell, click here and set up time for your customized demo.

Vendor Updates

With over 1,400 vendors “touching” the mortgage process, it is hard to keep track of who’s doing what. Let’s take a random look.

“ARIVE is making waves. Again. In a new video, AIME Chairman Anthony Casa announced that the platform will support FNM 3.2 exports. Sounds like the naysayers are going to have to find a new talking point.” You can view the video and learn more about ARIVE at HousingWire.

With great interest in January Insellerate launched its all new standalone engagement platform with pre built borrower journeys and content that allows lenders to Automate marketing for Facebook direct mail , text messaging , email and phone calls and drive more business , more repeat customers and lowers marketing cost. Insellerate is also rolling out its first AI engagement bot to a select few lenders in February.

Riivos, the mortgage cloud value chain management company that helps mortgage originators drive top financial performance, offers a mortgage pricing product that provides capital markets teams — both banks and non-banks — the ability to optimize their pricing strategy. “You can run sensitivity analysis on existing and new programs, so users can evaluate the impact on the entire organization through different pricing strategies.”

Guild Mortgage has aligned with Homebot, a personalized financial dashboard that enables Guild’s loan officers to provide regular, customized home finance and wealth building intelligence to homeowners. By partnering with Homebot, Guild’s loan officers can now offer customers relevant data, economic insights and market intelligence and stay connected with homeowners in a meaningful, personalized way long after the mortgage transaction has closed. Homebot’s home digests provide homeowners with regular insights, including their current home value, how their equity is building over time, refinancing opportunities, purchasing power for buying a new home or trading up to a new home, cash flow and short-term rental opportunities. Guild Mortgage will provide the company’s more than 1,100 loan officers nationwide access to Homebot’s “Lender Base” service at no cost to them.

Indecomm announced the availability of AuditGenius®, its’ next generation technology solution for automated loan audits and mortgage risk management. AuditGenius® is internally used, web-based SaaS solution developed to simplify the loan audit process for effective and efficient mortgage risk management and is now available to Indecomm clients in a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. Existing clients will benefit from the updated user experience, additional audit process features, and improved performance. In addition to those benefits, existing Indecomm clients will have the opportunity to subscribe to the AuditGenius® automation and business intelligence modules.

“Alexa, Find Me A New House." NTT DATA Services implemented Amazon Alexa technology to propel the U.S. mortgage industry forward by supporting loan officers’ inquiries using voice interaction. With this new application, requests can be streamlined to improve efficiency between company personnel. This service has been applied in the mortgage industry, and our experts believe there is ample opportunity for other financial institutions to implement similar applications and support innovation throughout their technology space.

INTEGRA Software Systems announced that it is collaborating with New Penn Financial and government sponsored enterprise (GSE) Freddie Mac to launch a one-click submission of loan data to Loan Product Advisor®, the GSE’s automated underwriting system (AUS). The solution will provide seamless integration that will help New Penn increase efficiency and maximize secondary market execution by allowing data to be simultaneously submitted to both GSE AUSs at point of sale. INTEGRA’s web-based Epic solution allows lenders to submit loan-data via a single click to both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae’s AUSs, enabling lenders to see the full view of options available to their borrowers and ultimately leading to an improved borrower experience. “Our collaboration with New Penn and Freddie Mac will increase productivity, improve accuracy in the loan decisioning and underwriting process and reduce the overall origination cycle time,” said Rick Allen, Senior Vice President of Operations, INTEGRA Software. “The seamless integration between our systems will allow for more efficiency, including configuration to identify loans eligible for data validation for income, assets and collateral so New Penn can identify the loan that is most favorable to the borrower.”

Capital Markets

The continued government shutdown meant that housing starts and retail sales, both major focal points in the market, were not released. Housing has been a concern over the last few months as affordability in the form of home prices and mortgage rates has caused some potential buyers to be priced out or left on the sidelines. While homebuilder sentiment fell to a three-year low in December, it recovered slightly in January as sales expectations for the next six months increased as mortgage rates have eased. Sentiment remains well off the highs seen at the start of 2018. The shutdown has delayed the all-important December retail sales report however private reports indicate that spending this past holiday season was strong. Redbook’s same-store sales reported physical stores saw a 6 percent increase each week in December. The focus now turns to the impact the shutdown will have on growth as federal workers have missed one paycheck and are closing in on missing two. Additionally, there are many contractors who rely on the federal government for work.

The U.S. 10-year closed Wednesday yielding 2.76% - in fact the entire yield curve shifted. Most news of note was political rather than economic, though there are always implications from one to the other. After reports Tuesday night that President Trump is unlikely to accept a trade deal that would only reduce the trade imbalance with China without addressing intellectual property rights and forced technology transfers, the media had a field day with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejecting President Trump's request to hold the State of the Union address while the government remains partially closed. Ultimately, he will likely deliver the address from a different location than the House of Representatives. The other political news of note was the United States recognizing Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the acting president of the country as demonstrations against the government of President Nicolas Maduro continue. Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and Colombia have also recognized the interim president.

Turning to today, the ECB has already come out with their latest monetary policy decision (unchanged at present levels) followed by ECB President Draghi's press conference. We’ve had U.S. weekly jobless claims (expected to increase, they actually fell 13k to 199k, a 50-year low!). At 9:45AM ET Markit will release its manufacturing and services PMIs, with both expected to fall versus their respective prior readings, and we’ll have December leading indicators (expected unchanged) an hour before January KC Fed manufacturing figures. Additionally, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin will testify before a House committee on, "The Shutdown's Impact on the Department of Treasury and American Taxpayers" at 10:30am. We begin today with Agency MBS prices +.125 versus last night’s close and the 10-year yielding 2.71%.