Thousands of lenders around the nation, in one form or another, donate to charities. But here’s an interesting twist on that. Todd Potter, SVP & National Sales Manager for Envoy Mortgage, writes, “23 lenders qualified for the Envoy Correspondent’s 2016 Charity Award$ Challenge. The program created specifically for out mortgage lenders to give back to the causes they support. Lenders who fund more than $15 million in production can donate up to $30,000 to a nonprofit of their choice. In 2016 these donations total almost $250,000 to more than 40 deserving and diverse nonprofits.”

Investor Updates and UW Changes

Due to investor guidelines, loan files may require a verification of the borrower's Social Security Number, through the Social Security Administration or other applicable government agency. A condition will be added to the loan when this documentation is needed and is required for all borrowers. NYCB Mortgage Banking clients can upload the necessary form to satisfy this condition in Gemstone under Doing Business / First Mortgage Forms. Please use the Social Security Administration (SSA) Authorization to Release Social Security Number (SSN) Verification form and upload both pages.

As a reminder, NYCB Mortgage clients are responsible for ensuring that all applicants fully and properly execute both the initial and final Uniform Residential Loan Application (1003). If the application is for joint credit, the borrower and co-borrower must provide a signature on page one of the 1003 and check the appropriate boxes. In addition, regarding government monitoring section of the 1003. As required by Regulations B and C, which implement the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), respectively, Clients must request and document the Borrower(s) Ethnicity, Race and Gender information.

And NYCB issued a reminder to its Table Funding Clients that deliver documentation electronically to their Consumers (outside of the Gemstone system), the E-Sign Act requires that Consumers must first be provided with an electronic consent disclosure notifying them of certain rights.

Plaza Home Mortgage has updated its Wholesale Broker Guide as follows: The Living Trust Policy (Section 19) of the Wholesale Broker Guide has been updated with clarification to requirements as well as format changes. In addition, requirements for signature addendums for both the Note and Security Instrument have been included. References to TRID required documents have been updated. Verbiage now reflects Loan Estimate in lieu of GFE and TIL and Closing Disclosure in lieu of TIL and HUD-1. GFE and TIL references for Reverse Mortgage remain unchanged.

Did you know Lender Live does not require tax transcripts if W-2 income is used to qualify the borrower?

Ditech Approved Wholesale Clients are now permitted to utilize Borrower-Paid Compensation loans. As of Monday, February 6th, clients can choose Lender Paid Compensation or Borrower Paid Compensation at time of registration with Ditech. Please refer to its Client Guide, Chapter 2, Compliance as the section has been updated to include this new policy. Loans using Borrower Paid compensation must be manually registered by ditech. In addition, locking, revising, and extending locks will also need to be completed by the lock desk at Ditech. These manual updates to loans with Borrower Paid Compensation will be available online in the next 60 days.Ditech Approved Delegated Correspondents with their own access to Desktop Underwriter are reminded that Ditech will purchase loans using DU Validated services without any documentation overlays. Compliance with terms and conditions on the DU findings is required.

Per CFPB additional commentary on TRID requirements (October 2016), the Real Estate Commission paid to all Realtors must be disclosed on the Buyer's Closing Disclosure.  Pacific Union Financial requires the Closing Disclosure to be completed as follows: Real Estate Commissions paid to (Provide name - Realtor Company Name matching the contact page). Paid by Seller should be listed as indicated below. (Paid by Buyer should display in Section H; Column A).

United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) has announced Loan Swap, a new pipeline management tool that enables originators to manage the order of their loans in UWMs underwriting queue. Joining the UClose platform and doc-less technology, Loan Swap gives UWMs network of brokers a greater level of control over their entire pipeline, managing their loans to meet their borrowers' timelines.

ResMac B2B has implemented an internal credit monitoring system that eliminates the need for a soft pull for files submitted on or after February 1^st.

NationStar Mortgage's In Focus piece identifies the most common suspense deficiencies for the month of December as well as the top 10 Suspense deficiencies.

Beginning March 1, 2017, loan files and loan file documents uploaded to AmeriHome's Seller Portal will be archived after 18 months. Archived documents will be available through a new document request process.

As of February 21^st, Wells Fargo Funding has updated its Settlement Agents List within the Wells Fargo Funding Validation List available on wellsfargofunding.com in the Info Gallery under Client Tools. As a reminder, the entire Wells Fargo Funding Validation List and its contents are Wells Fargo confidential information and proprietary material, intended only for the use of Correspondent Sellers active with Wells Fargo, for the sole purpose of determining the eligibility of Loans for sale to Wells Fargo. Disclosure of this information to unauthorized parties is a breach of the Wells Fargo Funding Seller Guide and is strictly prohibited.

Capital Markets

Galton priced its inaugural deal: GFMT 2017-1. In summary, it is a $255 million, AAA Rated (13.50%)/ Prime Credit / QM, non-QM, exempt loan deal. DBRS, Inc. has assigned provisional ratings to Galton Funding Mortgage Trust, but it is backed by 363 mortgage loans originally acquired by GMRF Mortgage Acquisition Company LLC. "The originators for the mortgage pool are Priority Financial Network (17.6%), Parkside Lending, LLC (16.2%); RPM Mortgage, Inc. (15.3%), Oaktree Funding Corp. (14.9%), PHH Mortgage Corp. (5.6%); and various other originators. The loans will be serviced by New Penn Financial, LLC doing business as (dba) Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing.

"The mortgages were generally originated pursuant to underwriting standards that conform to the sponsor acquisition criteria. The Sponsor has established product matrices for different loan programs. Majority of the loans in this securitization (92.3%) are Credit Grade A+ (Galton Program) borrowers with unblemished credit who may not meet prime jumbo or agency/government guidelines. While certain attributes are comparable with post-crisis prime transactions, the loans in the GFMT 2017-1 portfolio may have interest-only (IO) features, higher debt-to-income (DTI) and loan-to-value (LTV) ratios, lower credit scores and barbelled distribution of certain characteristics compared with recent prime securitizations. However, the overall credit profile of the Galton pool is much stronger than those of other non-QM programs rated by DBRS. In accordance with the CFPB QM rules, 22.3% of the loans are designated as QM Safe Harbor, 9.1% as QM Rebuttable Presumption and 35.1% as non-QM. Approximately

33.6% of the loans are not subject to the QM rules."

Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. announced the launch of noteXchange, "a state-of-the-art proprietary mortgage trading platform that can help deliver greater efficiency, security and numerous other advantages for mortgage bankers and loan investors. This secondary market trading platform brings buyers and sellers together in a centralized exchange that enables better communications, shorter sales cycles and automated processes. Designed, in part, to replace today's inefficient, manual and often risky process of transacting through spreadsheets and email, the platform centralizes trading activity between buyers and sellers and helps safeguard the transmission of data. noteXchange enables sellers to expedite trading by mapping loans to uniform templates and easily managing the distribution to multiple buyers in one place. noteXchange can also facilitate faster trading through a relationship with Thomson Reuters, which provides real-time pricing data to help inform bids made on the platform. The data provided by Thomson Reuters gives buyers the ability to anchor bids to market instruments with 20-second updates so users can continue trading through highly volatile markets and minimize hedging risk.

Citibank Correspondent is offering Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Premiums on eligible Loans. The premiums offered for the following MSAs will change effective with locks on/after Wednesday, March 1. For a complete list of MSAs offering additional CRA premiums, please refer to the updated Citi CRA Premium Schedule for complete details.

Fifth Third Correspondent announced that effective with locks on Monday, February 27th, purchase transactions will receive a .125 adjuster. This applies to all products and delivery methods. This adjuster will not apply to float downs on loans locked prior to 2/27 nor will it apply to long term locks (90 days or greater). 

HomeXpress Mortgage Corp. has a Non-TRID investment program: The InvestorX. This program is designed for borrowers who actively and historically manage and invest in real estate and are using the loan for business purposes. Loans are qualified based on the cash flow of the subject property only and are considered business purpose loans. Contact Andrew at agoldthorpe@homexmortgage.com for details.

In a recent bulletin, Ginnie Mae posted information regarding Additional MIP Information in Disclosure Data Search.

In terms of the daily bond markets, yes, the market believes that the FOMC will be raising short-term rates next week. Yet yesterday agency MBS closed slightly higher in price and tighter on spread versus treasuries, narrowly changed vs. swaps, with better buying including strong Fed support contributing to the move: yes, it helps when the NY Fed is buying $2 or so billion a day, using money from early payoffs. But Monday the 10-year note closed unchanged yielding 2.49%.

For news, today we've had January's International Trade balance ($48.5 billion, as expected); coming up are the Redbook Same-Store Sales Index and a $23 billion 3-year note auction. Out of the gate we find rates a shade higher with the 10-year at 2.51% and MBS prices worse nearly .125 versus last night.

Jobs and Announcements

Job-wise, Orange Coast Title Company, an industry leader since 1974 and one of the largest independently owned title insurance companies, has an excellent opportunity for a national operations executive in its Pittsburgh location. "As National Operations Manager, you will be responsible for all aspects of operational fulfillment for our title and settlement site including profit and loss, cost containment, productivity standards, compliance, fraud controls, underwriter/state audits; in addition to growth trajectory with volume forecasts and capacity planning. You will oversee all staff, accounting and human resources activities while developing and implementing policies, procedures and workflows to achieve high levels of productivity and efficiency. The ideal candidate will have a broad knowledge of the loan origination and servicing space with extensive experience in building/maintaining client relationships in the title and settlement industry, be self-motivated for this fast-paced, competitive environment, and be technology savvy. Travel required. Position reports to division's SVP/General Manager in So. California." Candidates should send confidential resumes to Melissa Cadena. 

Recognized as the leaders in the non-Agency space, Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions is continuing their aggressive hiring spree in 2017. Having already added 12 new Account Executives, management is not done as they are looking for additional experienced Wholesale Account Executives across the country. In addition, they are hiring underwriters and other operations positions in their Atlanta headquarters. "If you've been thinking about making a move into the fastest growing segment of the mortgage industry, now's the time. Come help us delivering an extraordinary customer experience by joining the nation's top Non-QM lender by emailing careers@angeloakms.com to start the conversation or watch this clip from their Mortgage News Network's Top Mortgage Employer's interview for more information."

In product news, InHouseUSA is enhancing its Solutions and Connexions platforms to predict appraisal turn-times to reduce false ETAs provided by pre-set turn-times in other platforms. The platforms will programmatically estimate the appraisal delivery date based on up to the minute data and will stop the use of average or pre-set days which are not relevant to an individual order. "Our clients do not feel averages, they feel actuals," Shane Martin, EVP of Strategy for InHouseUSA. The new technology works by estimating the delivery date at the time the appraisal request is placed and then updates when the order is accepted by an appraiser and again after the scheduling of inspection. The system analyzes factors including: Geo-location of the subject property, turn times for property type, turn times for the assigned appraiser, Appraiser's ranking for due dates, etc. PEDD (Predictive Estimated Delivery Date) accurately predicts how the assigned appraiser will act on this order. For more information or to schedule a meeting contact: Shane Martin, EVP, Business Development (316-253-8307).

Do you know how to drive your sales team to greater success? Download these Powerful Coaching Questions from XINNIX, The Mortgage Academy, to assist you in energizing your Loan Officers to higher production levels. For a 3-step process in coaching your LOs and how to leverage these questions, sign up for LEADERSHIP starting this Wednesday, March 8^th! Click here to enroll immediately, or contact us online for more information.