I have my own opinion about reading a book versus watching YouTube videos, given our finite time every day, but this statistic is staggering: The number of hours of content being uploaded to YouTube every minute is four hundred. So, 400 hours of videos are being uploaded every minute! The aggregate amount of time the human race spends watching web videos is still below the time spent watching television, but the gap is closing very fast.

And I received this information on the recent Caliber acquisition. "To clarify information regarding Caliber Home Loans who purchased Banc Home Loans, a division of Banc of California N.A., the transaction encompasses the retail, wholesale, and correspondent origination channels. Banc of California will retain their originations for their non-agency, bank portfolio products. In this acquisition, Caliber will bring on the renovation platform which provides a big opportunity to expand their existing product offering."

VA IRRRLs (Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan)

The VA program, often overlooked, is again gaining some publicity. A week or so ago I discussed some lenders refinancing vets at a fast pace. This elicited a note from the MBA's Pete Mills, SVP, on VA refinancing - a topic on which I received many similar e-mails.  "Regarding your recent commentary on the VA IRRRL issue, MBA shares the concerns that veterans are ill-served by aggressive serial refinancing from a 30-year fixed to a 3/1 ARM. Our members are seeing VA purchase loans being solicited for a 3/1 refi within weeks of closing, and in some cases before the original loan has been pooled. Except perhaps for rare cases, we find it hard to believe such activity is in the veteran's interest. In this rising rate environment, for the vast majority of veterans refinancing in less than six months, such activity strips equity and puts veterans into a product that is almost certain to result in higher payments over the long run. 

"The MBA has been in active discussions with both VA and Ginnie Mae to address this practice, which harms veterans, investors and responsible lenders alike. GNMA's requirement to pool these loans into standalone MBS - which MBA strongly supported - should have taken the economic incentives out of this practice, but apparently it has not been enough to curb these serial refinancing. For that reason, MBA will continue to advocate - as we have for the past year - for additional steps through VA rulemaking to bar early refinancings that do not provide a tangible benefit to the veteran."

Program-Specific News

NewLeaf Wholesale made enhancements to its NewLeaf VA guidelines. These enhancements effect VA High Balance 30, 20, 15 and 10 year products.

NewLeaf Bank Statement program guidelines have been updated to include a 12-month Bank Statement option, Interest Only amortization, 2-4 unit properties and reduction in seasoning requirements for major derogatory credit events.

Provident Funding is now offering FHA for sponsored originators in the states of CO, CA, NJ, PA, UT with more states coming soon.

Sun West Mortgage Company, Inc has published guidance on acceptability of properties with outstanding Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) or HERO programs. The guidance is available in General Requirement section in Underwriting Guide for Forward Mortgage. To access the guideline for wholesale channel, please click here; for correspondent channel, please click here.

PRMG Mortgage has updated its Resource Center in FastTrac. Updates include LDP GSA updated form, Jumbo Niche and Closed-End Seconds, Bond/Housing Authority/DPA Products (Retail only), and additions to ARM Product Data.

Citadel Servicing is now offering 12-Month Personal Bank Statement for income. "Up to 80% LTV, 100% of Deposits for Personal Statements, Don't look at Withdrawals or overdrafts and no P&L." Contact Will at willf@Citadelservicing.com for details.

Regulatory News

I am occasionally asked about any information concerning the CFPB's lender initiatives for 2017. The bulk of the work is regarding the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, but all can be researched in greater detail using the links below. Let's start with eRegulations. One initiative is to make regulations easier to read and navigate by bringing related information and regulatory history together with the rule text. Of course the CFPB is working on HMDA, having taken it over from HUD, offering up a webinar and especially when it concerns small entities complying with new rules and regulations. There is information about collecting and reporting HMDA information about ethnicity and race, as well as its general filing instructions guide. If you'd like a timeline for HMDA the CFPB has set out key dates to observe. And lastly on HMDA any technical questions can be emailed to hmdahelp@cfpb.gov.

The CFPB is also involved in mortgage loan origination standards and mortgage servicing.

The CFPB publishes "Supervisory Highlights" by which it shares key findings in order to help industry limit risks to consumers and comply with federal consumer financial law.  Each supervisory Highlight publication shares recent examination findings, including information about recent enforcement actions

Specific regulatory implementation questions can be e-mailed to CFPB_RegInquiries@cfpb.gov, or call 202-435-7700. And, of course, "whistleblower complaints" can be confidentially e-mailed to whistlerblower@consumerfinance.gov or call (855) 695 7974.

In a related topic, residential mortgage lenders found the federal "Know Before You Owe" mortgage disclosure rule (formally known as TRID) to be the source of most of their quality control (QC) headaches in 2016, the first full year of the rule's implementation. TRID accounted for 12 of the top 15 findings of quality control (QC) issues in 2016, according to a review by MetaSource of thousands of post-close QC audits conducted by the Utah-based third party mortgage compliance service provider.

Interest rates

Up some, down some - so it goes for much of life, including rates, and this week it's been up as the strength of the U.S. economy continues to be reflected in economic releases. Yesterday morning, for example, the ADP employment report came in well above forecasts. And although there is often a questionable correlation between it and tomorrow's employment data, strong is strong, and rates acted accordingly with the yield on the 10-year touching 2.58% before ending the day at 2.55%. (Agency MBS prices worsened nearly .250.)

So, if an increase wasn't priced into the market already, it is now. But that doesn't stop potentially market moving news from coming out. This morning we will have the rate decision from the ECB (European Central Bank). It is expected to leave rates unchanged. On this side of The Pond we'll February layoffs according to Challenger, Initial Jobless Claims, and February import/export prices. If you have some loose change on the dresser you can bid on the $12 billion reopened 30-year bond auction.

Jobs and Announcements

In personnel and job news, Sierra Pacific Mortgage is excited to welcome Al Crisanty. Al most recently served as Director of Wholesale Lending for Michigan Mutual. Additionally, Al held senior level positions in secondary marketing as well as correspondent lending before returning to wholesale mortgage banking. "He joins Sierra Pacific to further develop the Midwest and Southwest Wholesale markets. If anyone wants to join Al in dominating one of these states, please contact Sierra Pacific today."

AnnieMac Home Mortgage expanded its retail footprint early in Q1, already launching 4 new markets (Philadelphia Pa, Plano Texas, Central Florida, Houston Texas) with another 4 markets slated to open next 45 days. AnnieMac has plans to open 20+ new markets in 2017 while adding 1.5 new funded units in organic fundings per LO across sales. "'How we get there is the platform magic: AnnieMac's Realtor Productivity Platform will multiply an agent's production. By contrast, cost-sharing models like MSAs and lead share models only reduce an agent or broker's expense ledger. The simple principle of 'give before you expect to receive' provides our loan officers with a model far superior to the 'pay to play' approach,' noted Paul Zinn, SVP. Coupled with a National Lunch & Learn Platform, Live in the Market Road Show (featuring our sales platform), Ops at 19 months in a row hitting SLA's, killer TBD underwrite model, an internal appraisal platform and much more giving us an irresistible model to both originators and referral partners alike." Learn more by reaching out today to Paul Zinn.

In credit union hiring news, Financial Partners is hiring loan officers. Financial Partners is a $1B Federal Credit Union based in Downey, CA with a branch network throughout state. "We are recruiting experienced LO's with seasoned and producing referral relationships to fill openings throughout our branch network. Our product menu includes standard Agency, Government and stellar Portfolio programs." Please contact Duke Zupanski or visit FP's website above.

PRMG hired Gary Malis as its new Partner and Chief Strategy & Capital Markets Officer.  Gary is a 25-year veteran in the mortgage industry, and will be overseeing and advising Corporate Strategy and Capital Markets for PRMG. This includes all areas of Secondary Marketing, Risk, Strategic Operations, Warehouse Lending, Compliance, Credit Policy, Ancillary Services, Valuations, and Acquisitions, all of which will impact growth, risk, budgeting, efficiency, execution and overall strategy for the company. Mr. Malis has a distinguished list of past accomplishments including an MBA from the University of Arizona, being one of the founding partners for First Magnus Financial Corporation, Capital Markets Officer for StoneWater Mortgage (the predecessor of Caliber Funding), and was the Managing Director for Strategic Executive Services. Voted No. 1 of the 50 Best Companies to Work for in America, PRMG employees over 1,300 people with 93 branches across the country. To learn more contact Paul Lucido, PRMG's National Marketing Director.

LendingQB and BeSmartee have joined forces to co-present a free webinar called, "What happens after liftoff?" taking place on Wednesday, March 15 at 1 p.m. CST/11 a.m. PST. Participants will learn how POS systems should interact with LOS technology to deliver the "lift" that borrower and lenders expect from an online experience. They will review how to align a POS with consumers' and lenders' expectations, the key components a good POS possesses and why your applicants care, and how to utilize technology to seamlessly integrate to your LOS. The webinar is limited to 50 participants, so register today.

Yesterday the commentary mentioned a couple job fairs in specific locations, but I left off the sites. Here you go: "In retail job news, there will be two unique Mortgage Originator Career Fairs offered by JBSA in March, the 15-17 in Denver and the 20-22 in San Antonio. The event offers Loan Officers and Branch Managers the opportunity, in a casual environment, to meet with Jeff Bombich with the goal of matching them up with a specific lender to find the best possible employment match."