|
|
| | | |
|
‘Average’ Mortgage Banker Eked Out Modest Profit in 2007, MBA Reports
Improved profitability on the servicing side of the business helped mortgage bankers offset declining earnings on production and marketing in 2007, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association annual cost study. The “average” mortgage banking business earned pretax financial income of $0.9 million last year – down from $6.4 million in 2006 and $26.0 million in... [Includes one graph]
|
|
FASB Bid to Clarify Fair Value Gets Mixed Reviews
The Financial Accounting Standards Board earned widespread support for a fast-track plan to clarify how fair value estimates should be made for illiquid financial assets, but most industry observers found something lacking in the proposal. FASB last week floated a proposed clarification to Statement 157 in response to mounting criticism that its fair value accounting...
|
|
Costs May Curb Some Appetite for TARP Relief
Struggling mortgage businesses may be able to unload troubled assets on the federal government’s new $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, but they will first have to decide whether a sanitized balance sheet is worth the hefty cost of participation. The biggest unknown is how much TARP will pay for nonconforming mortgages and mortgage securities that can only be sold at distressed...
|
|
Wells Fargo Wins Wachovia, But at What Price?
The mortgage and credit markets might be a mess right now, but that didn’t keep Citibank and Wells Fargo from going to the mat in an effort to bolster their own profitability when the market rebounds with some key additions from Wachovia. Although mortgage expansion wasn’t a driving factor in the negotiations, the deal will have a significant impact in the ongoing consolidation of the servicing...
|
|
MBA Amps Up Mortgage Fraud Detection Tools
The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced the formation of a national database to help detect and prevent mortgage fraud that has been eating away at the industry’s already fragile profitability.
A group of MBA members came together and “saw a central need for a [national mortgage fraud] database,” said Harry Gardner, MBA vice president of industry technology. While the initiative wasn’t...
|
|
Firm Plans a Better Mousetrap for Due Diligence
With liquidity at a premium, due diligence has become a top priority for the mortgage industry and some experts say the next generation of these systems needs to be more transparent and easier to access.
Allon Financial, a new mortgage due diligence provider, wants to help its “clients understand, manage and reduce risk, and improve returns through highly informed whole loan trade and bond buying...
|
|
Wingspan to Rescue Borrowers From Foreclosure
If there is a growth business in 2008’s crumbling mortgage market, it’s in providing services to help reduce foreclosures – an effort that makes sense even in the best of times and has become a key focus of federal housing and financial policy. Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, a new entrant in the foreclosure mitigation business, says its strategy for bringing more loans to...
|
|
Bailout Helps Banks with GSE Stock Exposure
Lawmakers ensured that the government’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac won’t wipe out dozens of smaller banks by adding key provisions to the massive financial bailout plan signed into law last week. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 made an important tax change to allow banks to treat losses on holdings of the government-sponsored enterprises’ preferred stock...
|
|
Fitch Gives Insight into RMBS Risk Analysis
Analysts from Fitch Solutions gave investors an inside look at their new advisory service, which uses the same loan-level mortgage analytics that the company uses to rate mortgage-backed securities.
The advisory service gives an evaluation of a portfolio of residential loan assets based on loan level inputs provided by the client. It will assist management teams in meeting regulatory...
|
|
FDIC Seeks Higher Assessments on Riskier Lenders
Lenders with higher real estate and securitization exposures got more bad news this week as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced a restoration plan that proposes to charge riskier banks and thrifts higher rates for deposit insurance. The agency’s board of directors voted to adopt the plan, while assuring the public it has sufficient money to protect insured...
|
|  | | Home | Login | Subscribe | Contact Us | User Agreement & Privacy Policy | © Copyright 2008, Inside Mortgage Finance Publications
7910 Woodmont Ave., Suite 1000, Bethesda, MD 20814
Tel: (301) 951-1240; Fax: (301) 656-1709
All rights reserved. Photocopying or electronic distribution of this web page or any of its contents without prior written consent of the publisher violates U.S. copyright law, and is punishable by statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringement, plus attorneys' fees (17 USC 504 et seq.). Without advance permission, illegal copying includes regular photocopying, faxing, excerpting, forwarding electronically, and sharing of online access.
|
|
|
Shopping Cart
