GOP Senator’s Mortgage Company Closed. 53k Mortgage Companies in 2004 vs. 15k Now. Homeland Federal Mortgage, out of Oklahoma, was a mortgage broker until they recently shut down. Why is this worth mentioning? Interestingly, the owner is Republican state senator Dan Newberry who wrote, “Recent federal legislative initiatives that favor big banks have made it [...]

Cash-Out vs. Cash-In Refi Stats Remember when cash-out refinancing was the bulk of our business, and any investor who would tweak their price slightly on this product would either see all or none of the business? Four or five years ago, that category of loan hit 88%, which, according to Freddie Mac, put another way, [...]

My 86-year old Dad caught me taking a nap over the weekend. Not one to miss an opportunity, he said, “You practically invented lazy. People should have to call you and ask for the rights to the word “lazy” before they use it.” That’s my Dad… Lock Desk personnel are seldom lazy, and in fact [...]

Fed Mortgage Rate Help Waning? Let it happen or make it happen, it’s up to you! Or, with mortgage rates, it is up to the Fed. The Fed’s buying mortgage-backed securities has kept mortgage rates low, right? And one way to attract private investors to buy mortgage securities is to make the yield attractive, right? [...]

The Economist recently pointed out how private equity is gearing up for some serious financial sector investing, saying that 60 private equity funds that focus on financial services were set up in 2008 and 114 are in the works. One key reason for the trend is that non-banking firms previously could not own significant stakes [...]

It was mealtime during an airline flight. “Would you like dinner?” the flight attendant asked John, seated in front. “What are my choices?’ John asked. “Yes or no,” she replied. Banker vs. Broker Sometimes brokers feel that they are having fewer and fewer choices. One wrote to me last week and said, “Why would Wells [...]

After failing and being seized by the FDIC earlier this year, Indymac is now on the block to be bought within 90 days. The FDIC has taken on the role of investment bank as the bank failures mount. After the Indymac failure depleted the FDIC fund, FDIC head Sheila Bair took on a new approach, [...]

Twenty-two banks have failed so far in 2008. After Indymac failed in July, which was the largest of the year at that time, the FDIC saw that their reserves for taking over failing banks were going to disappear in a hurry. So they started acting as investment bank of sorts by brokering deals where they’d [...]

Downey Financial, a Newport CA based savings and loan, was seized by the FDIC Friday and sold to US Bank in a deal the FDIC brokered. As of October 22, Downey’s loans no longer collecting interest were 15.7 percent of bank assets. Most of these bad loans were from their portfolio of about $7 billion [...]

Who says investment banking is deal. The new deal brokers on The Street are the Fed, Treasury and, increasingly, the FDIC. Under Sheila Bair, the FDIC’s role in the credit crunch is getting larger and larger. When Indymac went down, it caused great concern that the FDIC’s industry-funded deposit insurance fund would quickly be depleted [...]