Mortgage Industry News

by: Ruth Lee

The mortgage industry loves its acronyms doesn’t it? From LOS to LQI, PPE to GSE, AU to DU and everything in between, it’s a veritable alphabet soup out there. Two of the acronyms that get most confused are QA (quality assurance) and QC (quality control) because the industry has long assumed that the two terms are interchangeable. News flash – they aren’t, and if you’re relying on QC to achieve QA, you are in for a rough 2012. For those that don’t know, QA is systemic failure prevention; QC is a failure-detection system…and you need both if you hope to make it in the current mortgage market. For more on the differences between QA and QC, check out my article in the February issue of Secondary Marketing Executive.

by: Elizabeth Lee

Although MERS® Quality Assurance requirements are not that complex, they are time consuming. For those of us that love to read Quality Assurance Manuals for tedious procedural updates to implement, not a major problem. But many of us are busy working and looking for trusted colleagues to break trail on those issues and report back. If I may be so bold…a brief data dump incoming. Or, skip this blog and simply call me on how to meet MERS® QA requirements.

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by: Ruth Lee

Lazy, uninformed and disingenuous – my cup runneth over with epithets for this Congress.  It is unsurprising that our Congress and a general takeover by Communists are polling around the same approval rating.

If you are buying a home or refinancing in 2012, you can expect to pay a higher rate of anywhere from .5% to .8% for THIRTY YEARS because Congress insisted it “pay for” the short term 2% payroll tax extension with G-fees.   G-fees are an easy target, and your comprehension is not required for you to feel the impact.  For example, there are millions that still can’t define a CDO, but are quite aware that their home is worth 30% less than it was five years ago.

Planning on ringing in the 2012 New Year in style?

If you are a servicer, think again.  This year, December 31, falls on a Saturday and is also the deadline regulators have set for the completion of your MERS data reconciliation, your Annual Report and your MERSCORP Quality Assurance plan.

In April, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued consent orders to MERSCORP and to the top servicers requiring that they refine and implement Quality Assurance procedures designed to achieve the following.

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by: Ruth Lee

Last week, Sen. Barney Frank (D – Mass.) announced his plans to retire, and the good folks at MortgageOrb.com asked moi for my thoughts on this news.  I, of course, took the opportunity to add some much needed snark and sass to the piece.

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by Mary Kladde

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently took to Capitol Hill to defend enormous executive bonuses after Congress voted to subject GSE employees to the federal pay scale.  Seriously?  The price tag for the GSE bailout is estimated to be $169 billion and counting, as losses continue to mount.

In the real world, at least among small to mid-size companies which represents the backbone of the US economy, if your company isn’t making a profit, you don’t get paid, much less are you rewarded with bonuses.   You tighten your belt or go out of business!  I’m not sure why the GSEs and Wall Street don’t work this way.

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by: Mark Ridder
Titan Lenders Corp General Counsel

I received the following excerpt in an email newsletter this morning:

MERS can’t seem to catch a break. Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden (does that name ring a bell?) has filed suit against the company alleging it repeatedly violated the state of Delaware’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Biden feels that MERS engaged, and continues to engage, in deceptive trade practices that cause confusion among homeowners, investors and other stakeholders in the mortgage finance system, seriously damaging the integrity of the land records that are central to Delaware’s real property system, and leading to improper foreclosure practices. These “deceptive” trade practices fall into three broad categories. The first is that “MERS, through its private mortgage registry, knowingly obscures important information from borrowers and the information that MERS does provide to borrowers is frequently inaccurate. The opacity of MERS’ mortgage registration database makes it difficult for consumers to know of or challenge inaccuracies in the MERS System. The second is that MERS often acts as an agent without authority from its proper principal. Because the MERS System was both unreliable and frequently inaccurate, MERS often does not know the identity of its proper principal. Where the name of the owner of the mortgage loan recorded in the MERS System does not reflect the true owner, any action MERS takes on behalf of the purported owner is without authority. The third is that MERS is effectively a “front” organization that has created a systemically important mortgage registry, but fails to properly oversee that registry or enforce its own rules on its members that participate in the registry. Rather than maintaining an adequate staff to provide MERS’ services, MERS operates through a network of over 20,000 deputized non-employee corporate officers who cause MERS to act without any meaningful oversight from anyone who works at MERS.”

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Remarks by Black Box Casino author Robert Stowe England at this month’s Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) annual conference in Chicago detailing his exploration of how, in his words, “The story of the financial crisis is the story of mortgage banking,” have been posted at YouTube:

His remarks also shed light on the current Occupy Wall Street phenomenon. Read the full press release here.

On October 10, 2011 National Mortgage News (www.nationalmortgagenews.com) published an article from an interview with our EVP, Ruth Lee, Providing a Full View of the Origination Supply Chain.

It discussed the Origination Supply Chain and the effect each part of the process has on the bottom line of a loan – securitization.  This week I attended a MERS User Conference and once again listen to companies struggling to understand the big picture, the supply chain.

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In the October issue of Origination News (www.originationnews.com) our EVP, Ruth Lee, had published an article, Opportunities Exist For Experienced LOs.

We talk with brokers everyday who are interested in becoming a banker/correspondent lender.  The industry is perfectly set up for these brokers to take advantage of banker opportunities when it comes to warehouse lending and direct delivery to investors.  Many are now extending lines with only $150,000.00 net worth and same for investors.  Becoming a full fledge banker is now in the grasps of most all established brokers.

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We look forward to seeing friends old and new in Chicago next week. Congratulations, especially, to Robert Stowe England on the publication of “Black Box Casino” on September 30.   We think it is an important read for our industry and you can take that as a “Like.”

by Ruth Lee, EVP  Titan Lenders Corp.

The faint echo of “s…u…c…k…e…r” rolls in like thunder at summer’s end.

This week, MBA NewsLink honored me by featuring an opinion piece I submitted http://goo.gl/gtn2Z. It did not include the above sentence. I must admit to a level of restraint in that article that chafes me now because I am a disciple of the healing power of truth, of “calling a spade a spade,” if you will.

Click here for more information and to register!

by Elizabeth Lee

The UAD appraisal delivery requirements aren’t that complex. Operationally, the burden lays with the appraiser…here are a few tips and comments on what I have learned on the origination side.

Some say the UAD requirements will cause confusion, delays and higher costs. Here are a few tips for lenders I’ve gathered from the origination side to avoid the operational mayhem.

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We keep a close eye on the mortgage industry and financial media here at Titan Lenders Corp. We also try to contribute constructive ideas and observations to the “water cooler “ discussion.  Last week our own Ruth Lee dropped a letter to Mortgage Technology magazine about an article in its July issue related to UMDP – the Uniform Mortgage Data Program that has appraisers, among others, worried. http://goo.gl/uhtet