Disaster Updates; RBS Lawsuit Setback; Lender Products

By: Rob Chrisman

Yesterday was the release of the HMDA information by the CFPB. Yes, there is a dashboard to slice and dice the data; more information below. And yes, HMDA data collection changes enforced by the CFPB are moving forward.

Disaster updates

Chase correspondent published its Irma news.

Flagstar has announced the availability of FHA's 203(h) mortgages for borrowers who lost their homes in a presidentially declared disaster. The program is available for all FHA brokers and correspondents, including DE delegated correspondents. The 203(h) program is a purchase or reconstruction financing program for purchase or reconstruction of a single-family property or condominium unit that will be occupied as the borrower's principal residence.

Flagstar Bank is resuming fundings for all loans except FHA, located in Texas and Louisiana once a satisfactory re-inspection has been obtained.  Contact your representative for the effective date to determine if a re-inspection is required. Due to damage and flooding caused by Hurricane Irma in the state of Georgia, properties located in Camden, Chatham or Glenn counties will require a re-inspection.  Contact your rep for the effective date to determine if a reinspection is required.

In an effort to assist borrowers effected by the hurricanes and floods, Freddie Mac announced updates to its temporary Selling and Servicing requirements in Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide Bulletin 2017-21.

First Community Mortgage posted its disaster update applicable to FHA's.

Any ResMac loan currently in process with subject properties located in the disaster declarations for Georgia: Camden, Charlton, Chatham, Coffee, Glynn, Liberty and during the incident period beginning September 7th, 2017 to September 26th, 2017 will require re-inspection.

Ginnie Mae issued an All Participants Memorandum (APM) - PM 17-02 to Single-Family Issuers providing buyout guidance for loans impacted by Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma.

If your operations are impacted by Hurricane Maria, please contact your Wells Fargo Funding Regional Sales Manager or a member of your regional team to discuss options around suspense fee relief on Best Effort and Mandatory Loans.

On September 19th, Mortgage Solutions Financials revised its Hurricane Irma disaster alert.

The State of Texas, affected by Hurricane Harvey, has received an incident period end date of September 15, 2017. Prior to closing and funding, ResMac, Inc. will require a property inspection for any loan secured by a property in the affected area. If the subject property is in one of the impacted counties and the appraisal was completed prior to the incident period end date, ResMac will require a post disaster inspection confirming the property was not adversely affected by the disaster. The inspection report must be dated no earlier than the date of disaster conclusion as determined by FEMA and/or the State of Texas.

On September 15, 2017, with Disaster Alert 20170909, AmeriHome announced temporary additional guidance for the purchase of FHA loans with an appraisal, in FEMA declared disaster areas with individual assistance, if not insured prior to the Incident Period Begin Date. Effective with a waiver issued 9/19/2017, for Florida Hurricane Irma, FHA will accept re-inspections conducted by an FHA roster appraiser prior to the FEMA declared Incident End Date for insuring purposes. A FEMA End Date will be required for Georgia.

FHA issued a waiver of its policy on the timeframe for completing the inspection of properties prior to closing or submitting the mortgage for FHA insurance endorsement in the Presidentially-Declared Major Disaster Areas in the state of Florida impacted by Hurricane Irma (IRMA PDMDAs). Mortgagees can find more information about FHA's PDMDA policies, as well as the 203(h) Mortgage Insurance for Disaster Victims Program and the 203(k) Rehabilitation Mortgage Insurance Program, on the FHA Resource Center's Online Knowledge Base.


Capital Markets

Nomura Holdings Inc. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group lost a U.S. court appeal on Thursday to overturn an order requiring them to pay $839 million for making false statements while selling mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two banks had challenged the 2015 award on multiple grounds, including that the loss of the securities' value was largely caused not by any false statements, but by the broader financial crisis in 2008. A unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York, however, rejected that and other arguments. The lawsuit was one of 18 brought by the FHFA that year over some $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities that banks sold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. All the other lawsuits have been settled. The FHFA has recovered more than $23 billion from the settlements.

The U.S. Treasury market began Thursday on a lower note, but a strong $28 billion 7-yr note auction helped shorter-dated maturities, while the 10-yr note ended flat. The yield curve steepened a touch, as the 2s10s spread expanded. In terms of Thursday's economic releases, initial claims held below 300,000 for the 134th straight week. Continuing claims for the week ending September 16 decreased by 45,000 to 1.934 million. This should ultimately translate into lower readings in the coming weeks as the hurricane impact diminishes.

In Washington, House Budget Committee Chair Diane Black said that a vote on a 2018 budget resolution will take place on October 5. And Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said President Trump is not willing to budge on his proposed 20.0% corporate tax rate. Today, we've have August Personal Income & Spending (+.2%, +.1%) and core PCE Prices (only +1.3% year over year). Additionally, we will receive September Chicago PMI, final September Michigan Sentiment Index, and Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker will speak. Thursday the 10-year ended the day yielding 2.31%. We start the trading day with the 10-year yielding 2.31% and agency MBS prices a shade improved.


Opportunities

Cassandra Fraulino, VP of Retail Ops for AMERICAN ADVISORS GROUP (AAG) is looking for a dozen talented LOAN PROCESSORS for its newly opened Austin, TX location. AAG is the leader in reverse mortgage lending and is dedicated to helping American seniors access home equity to fund their retirement needs. AAG is looking for driven and ambitious team players who can process FHA applications, organize/track loan docs, and work with various stake holders throughout loan processing. These positions will report to Rob Maddox, Director of Processing in Austin, TX. If you have at least one-year processing experience, apply today and be a part of our growing Austin team! Click here to apply or visit www.aag.com/careers for more information. Contact recruiter Manny Sanchez for more info!

Priming for its next wave of growth, Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions, the leader in the non-QM space, announced the addition of 4 more AEs to help brokers grow their business. Adding additional coverage across the country, Gary Martinek joined in Maryland, Crawford Franck in Norfolk, VA, Blanche Esteban in Newark, CA and Steven Neubert in Denver, CO. And Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions is not done, as it continues to hire additional Wholesale Account Executives across the country as well as underwriters and other operations positions in its Atlanta headquarters. There is no better time to join the nation's top non-QM lender by visiting JoinAngelOak.com or watch this clip from Mortgage News Network's Top Mortgage Employer's interview for more information.

Draper and Kramer Mortgage Corp. has announced that one of the nation's top-producing mortgage originators, Harinder "Indy" Johar, has joined the company. Johar joins Draper and Kramer Mortgage's Franklin, Massachusetts branch as director of residential lending. He has ranked among the top 25 mortgage originators in the country by loan volume since 2010 and originated more than $250 million in loans in 2016. "We're truly honored to have Indy join our team," said Paul Lueken, CEO of Draper and Kramer Mortgage Corp. "His incredible record and reputation speak for themselves. He could have chosen any mortgage company to join, but he chose us. That's a huge endorsement of who we are and what we offer." The growing nationwide lender has been recruiting in numerous markets and is on pace to add over a dozen branches across the country in 2017. If you are a loan officer looking for a new opportunity, visit joindkmortgage.com or email recruiting@dkmortgage.com.

Well known lenders continue to choose Vantage Production for their automated sales and marketing solution - VIP. Vantage Production recently announced that both Benchmark Mortgage and MB Financial Bank have selected VIP to help them boost production and amplify profitability! "Technology can help meet expectations, but we empower humans to exceed expectations. With the efficiency VIP's automated sales and marketing provides, mortgage loan originators have the time they need to delight their clients and partners," said Vantage Production, EVP Todd Ballenger. To learn more, schedule a Discovery Call when you click here or contact Bill Bodnar at 732.526.1525.

Have you ever wanted to know which producers you should be calling in your market, but don't know where to find them?  Now you can. With Model Match Opportunity Lead Finder you get the data that allows you to focus on the best match for your company. This tool gives you visibility into an originator's previous year's volume, trailing 12-months volume, as well as a trailing 3-months volume so you can be intentional about who you are calling.  The data also includes visibility into unit count, average loan amount, as well as purchase percentage and product mix. Click Here to get set up to receive Lead Names or schedule a time to meet our team at the National MBA Annual Convention in Denver in October.  

For the second year in a row, the mortgage industry experts at Richey May are offering free access to their dynamic, interactive HMDA Market Share Dashboard, now updated with the 2016 origination data that was just released yesterday. As Q3 ends, and you look towards strategic planning for Q4 and 2018, lenders and other industry participants will find this dashboard valuable for identifying new markets for expansion, seeking out M&A opportunities, measuring the success of sales efforts and more. This year's dashboard also includes new features, such as census data and heat maps for any state, metro area or county across the U.S. Visit this free dashboard on the Richey May website, and contact Tyler House for more information.

loanDepot's CEO and Chairman, Anthony Hsieh is known for attracting the finest talent while leveraging groundbreaking technology. What does this mean for job seekers? Massive employment opportunities across all four Retail regions - Pacific Division, led by Drew Collins, Midwest Division, headed by Tom Fiddler, and Southeast and Northeast Divisions under the command of Paul Ramos and Eric Declercq, respectively. These divisional leaders understand the importance of developing a company that can provide the right resources for professional development. While having the right guidance and mentorship in place is key, the success employees find at loanDepot can also be attributed to the company mission. Employees feel deeply connected to Anthony's idea of revolutionizing the future of lending with the utmost level of integrity. They also understand the purpose and impact of their work, and believe in the mission. If working for a company with great leadership and innovative technology are attractive to you, contact Peter Tenfjord today.

In broker news, CoreVest, a lender to residential real estate investors, has announced the introduction of a new wholesale partner channel which offers mortgage brokers a highly attractive way of gaining access to the rapidly growing investor loan market. "...strong demand from investors who need loan products designed specifically for their rental property and fix-and-flip businesses...the market leader that has closed nearly $3 billion in investor loans and financed over 20,000 investment properties...To lead CoreVest's wholesale channel efforts, the company recently hired Samuel Bjelac as Vice President of Wholesale Lending...CoreVest's single-property rental loans offer a 30-year fixed rate, up to 75 percent of value, and can range from $67,500 to $1.4 million."