Price is paramount to buyers purchasing a mortgage company, but equally important is bringing over the salesforce – namely loan officers – and making sure they stay happy under the new owners. That’s one of many insights contained in a new “In-Focus” report from The Stratmor Group, a consulting firm that plies its trade in the M&A circuit as well as other sectors of the industry. “While the numbers and related analysis are fundamental to the negotiating process, there is an ...

Commercial banks and savings institutions are continuing their years-long flight from the volatile business of holding mortgage-servicing rights on their balance sheets, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call report data. At the end of June, banks and thrifts serviced $3.916 trillion of single-family mortgages for other investors, usually mortgage-backed securities trusts. That was down 2.1 percent from the previous quarter and ... [Includes one data chart]

It’s no secret that PHH Corp. is losing money and hopes for a buyout offer that will net stockholders something closer to its book value of $24 a share compared to its current price of $15. But the big question remains: Can PHH pull off a deal before more bad news swamps the company?In a recent 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the nation’s ninth largest servicer of home mortgages noted that it’s continuing its “strategic review process,” including a ...

The parent company of FirstBank this month filed for an initial public offering of common stock, hoping to raise upwards of $115.0 million. Among its goals: to increase originations and bolster its investment in mortgage servicing rights. Headquartered in Tennessee, the community bank has significantly increased its mortgage activity in recent years, according to IPO documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by FB Financial. The bank funded $2.76 billion in ...

Fix-and-flip lender California Capital Real Estate Advisors, Pasadena, late last month raised $10 million in capital through its CALCAP Income Fund 1. The company hopes to add at least $15 million more by the time September ends. Its eventual goal: to raise $100 million. Started by industry veteran Mark Mozilo and others in the wake of the financial crisis, the company’s forte is lending money to contractors who purchase homes and fix them up for a quick resale. In 2015 ...

Strong competition among big banks helped increase originations of jumbo mortgages during the second quarter, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. An estimated $101.0 billion in jumbos were originated in the second quarter, up 31.2 percent from the previous quarter. Through the first half of 2016, an estimated $178.0 billion in jumbos were originated, a 7.9 percent increase from the first half of 2015. Jumbo mortgages ... [Includes one data chart]

FHA saw a modest rise in originations midway through 2016 compared to the same period last year, but VA did a lot better with a double-digit increase in loan production, according to an analysis of Ginnie Mae data. Lenders delivered $123.0 billion of FHA-insured loans to Ginnie pools during the first half of 2016, up 8.4 percent from the previous year. FHA’s midyear production was driven by a surge in purchase-mortgage lending in the second quarter, which also pushed volume higher for VA as well as conventional-conforming mortgages. Government-backed lending rose 32.3 percent from the first quarter to approximately $131.0 billion in second-quarter originations, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, an affiliate publication of Inside FHA/VA Lending. It was the highest three-month total for government-insured lending on record, although private mortgage insurance did more business in the ... [2 charts]

The Mortgage Bankers Association strongly urged the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the FHA to issue authoritative guidelines for lenders participating in state and local housing finance programs that rely on premium pricing to fund downpayment assistance. In a recent letter to members, the MBA recommended that FHA lenders “tread carefully” and seek legal advice until HUD provides more definitive guidance on downpayment assistance and premium pricing. Lenders should consider carefully whether and when to participate in DPA programs from housing finance agencies that rely on premium-pricing mechanisms, the letter said. The MBA said it would continue to press HUD for clarification on this contentious issue. The FHA and HUD’s inspector general are currently at odds over permissible sources of single-family downpayment assistance offered through housing finance agencies. Although the ...

A new audit report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general recommended that the agency continue its efforts to collect millions of dollars in partial claims that came due during fiscal year 2015. According to a HUD IG report, the department left uncollected approximately 1,361 partial claims, worth about $21.5 million. The IG discovered the oversight during an audit of HUD’s partial claim collections. The IG reviewed a statistical sample of 135 of 10,561 partial claims associated with FHA loans that terminated in FY 2015. “HUD had not collected 36 of the claims that should have been collected,” the report stated. “We used this result to project that a total of 1,361 partial claims were not collected.” The claims were never returned to the FHA mortgage insurance fund, as required by agency rules, to strengthen FHA solvency, the report said. A partial claim is a loss ...

The Federal Communications Commission has issued a baffling final rule restricting the way servicers can collect on or service student loans, mortgages and other debts owed to the federal government.Specifically, the rule implements a key provision in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 amending the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to exclude robocalls from the TCPA consent requirement if they are made solely to collect a debt owed to or guaranteed by the federal government.The TCPA generally requires a caller to obtain “prior express consent” from the call recipient before making a telemarketing call or an auto-dial call to the recipient’s landline or cell phone.However, the mortgage industry raised concerns that TCPA’s consent requirement could create potential liability for important servicing calls that could help homeowners save their homes, which prompted Congress to pass the Budget Act amendment. Last month, the FCC specifically excluded the federal government from the TCPA’s consumer protections by ruling that the government is not a “person” subject to the TCPA. Here is where the FCC rule gets confusing. commission is authorized to adopt rules to “restrict or limit the number and duration” of any wireless calls to collect debt owed to the federal government.”