Remember a month ago, heading into the July 4th weekend, a resurgence of Covid-19 cases (which many officials attributed to large Memorial Day gatherings) resulted in mask-wearing mandates as well as rollbacks and delays in phased reopening plans. (Speaking of the virus, we wish loanDepot’s Anthony Hsieh a continued welcomed recovery from its impact.) Economic data has sure been a mix of positive and negative, with sentiment based on news of the virus. Potential new setbacks weighed on analysts’ outlooks for the coming months as economic activity is seen slowing again in the states with the highest new cases. It remains to be seen whether the V-shaped recovery will turn into a W-shaped recovery, or perhaps a sawtooth pattern. Recall that the minutes from the June 9-10 FOMC meeting showed Fed officials thought it necessary to keep monetary policy very accommodative until a full recovery is observed. Even more so given the high degree of uncertainty surrounding the risks posed by reopening and increasing coronavirus cases in many parts of the county. And by the way, be careful on Zoom calls. (Warning: rated R.)

Broker and Lender Products

Polunsky Beitel Green, LLP, Texas’ oldest law firm specializing in residential mortgage lending, is pleased to announce that Claire Barber has joined the firm as an associate attorney in the Houston office. In her new role, Barber will be responsible for representing and advising the firm’s clients on residential mortgage originations and providing practical guidance on industry regulatory matters.  Barber will assume a leadership role in the Houston office, where she will further solidify the firm’s commitment to providing exemplary legal services to clients nationwide. “We are proud to add Claire to our recognized team, as few attorneys in the mortgage industry possess her level of knowledge of origination and regulatory issues,” said Polunsky Beitel Green founder Allan Polunsky. “I am confident our firm and our clients will benefit tremendously from her skills and experience.” Barber received her law degree from South Texas College of Law and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Baylor University. Email Claire here. 

Mortgage elephant in the room: Are your current customers STILL leaving to the competition? Ok, lender executive - this is for you: What’s the fastest and most predictable way to increase your sales BEYOND the current market? If you said BORROWER RETENTION, you are 100% correct. Your solution: The Attention to Retention Challenge. Starting August 17th, we’re sharing our expert secrets, and handing over the playbook on how to TRIPLE your retention rate without maxing out your overhead! Plus over $9,000 in bonuses. People are calling us crazy, and we might just be. In this EXCLUSIVE event, we are walking you through our proprietary process, and teaching you how to fish for yourself! Lender executives, we’re limited to 30 sign ups. Register now: www.salesboomerang.com/challenge. (Current customers need not register… we got your back! Ask your CSM for details.)

FundingShield CEO Ike Suri shared its Q2-2020 analytics. “The risk of wire and title fraud in the closing and settlement space continues to grow due to fast moving changes in closing practices, work-from-home, and more due to COVID-19. Comparing Q1 vs Q2, 2020, we saw an alarming increase in fraud/risk exposure in CPL errors/issues of nearly 50%, 530% increase in CPL/Agent validation errors with title insurers, and nearly 135% increase in state licensing issues. Market vulnerabilities have aided fraudsters. Fundingshield helps prevent, identify and resolve these inefficiencies, threats and exposures in a timely manner so lenders can run their businesses without interruptions, reputational nightmares and/or losses.” Fundingshield’s

MISMO Certified inTech B2B & B2B2C solutions deliver transaction level coverage against wire & title fraud, settlement risk, closing agent compliance & cyber threats while reducing operating costs and improving asset quality. FundingShield’s user-centric plug’n’play tools are scalable, pay-per-loan, secure, cloud-based and are integrated via APIS or LOS (Encompass) driving ROIs >200%. Housingwire TECH100 Winner for 2019 & 2020; contact Sales@Fundingshield.com.

Events in August 

The California MBA’s Mortgage Innovators Conference promises to be the cutting edge event for lenders looking for the perfect technology partners to enhance their business.  Lenders can attend free (register, and your fees are refunded when you engage within the virtual platform) and anyone who registered by Friday, July 31st was entered to win a $500 Amazon gift card!

FAMC Wholesale’s August 2020 Wholesale “Customer Training Calendar” offers a variety of training opportunities such as: Analyzing Appraisals, Faster Closings, Alert – Latest Fraud and Scam Updates and Customer Experience & The Home Buying Journey, with Cultural Outreach.

Genworth Mortgage Insurance provides complimentary webinar courses to help customers manage, protect, and grow their business, delivering you-centric solutions that matter. Stay informed on Industry Guidelines & Updates and ramp up staff New to the Industry. Check out our new tools created as a result of GSE guideline changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic and August webinars including “Managing Your Pipeline,” and the “Latest Fraud and Scam Updates.” View the full August Training Calendar here.

Join Carrington Mortgage Services, LLC for a free webinar tomorrow, August 4th that'll give you basic training (or a refresher) on how to get and close more VA purchase, refinance and cash-out loans with Carrington, one of the nation’s top lenders for Veterans.

There is still time to register for Arch MI’s Housing Update Webinar on Wednesday, August 5th presented by Arch’s Global Chief Economist and HaMMR author, Dr. Ralph DeFranco.

Register for CoAMPs August 12th Virtual Class: Wire Fraud and Cyber Crime with Peggy Pingel.

The Michigan Mortgage Lenders Association Virtual Lending Conference is on August 13. Speakers include Bob Broeksmit, Christine Beckwith, Ben Anderson, Steve Richman, and Ginger Bell. Here is the event website, here is a demo on what a virtual conference will look like. 

The Mortgage Innovators Conference 2020 (August 17-18) will be the most engaging, immersive, and VALUE-PACKED virtual mortgage conference you’ll attend this year! In addition to exciting product demos and unique opportunities to network with mortgage industry pros from across the nation, you’ll also find new ways to build deeper connections with your borrowers, thanks to interactive topic-focused discussions on issues important to you. Registration is open, lenders can attend FREE (see site for details), and the first 500 attendees will receive a Conference Experience Kit!

IMN's Single Family Rental Virtual Forum, taking place on August 18-19 is a full-fledged virtual event with 25+ panel sessions, an exhibit hall, networking/online chatting, and meeting rooms. Projecting 2,000+ guests including a who’s who of the sector, sponsors and attendees will be able to network and schedule meetings with each other over the course of the two days.

Calyx announced that New York Times Best Selling author, tech entrepreneur & business guru Josh Linkner will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming Calyx Vision 2020 virtual user conference. Linkner’s live presentation, “Big Little Breakthroughs: How Small Everyday Innovations Drive Oversized Results,” will stream on Tuesday, August 18, from 11am - 12pm CT. His session will explore the power of inventive thinking and creative problem solving in day-to-day situations and will provide attendees with fresh perspective, inspiration, practical tools, and actionable advice that can be quickly and easily implemented at all levels. Don’t miss out, register today!

From Maryland comes MMBBA upcoming events: Learn 3 Tangible Tips for Mortgage Marketing – Digital and Traditional on August 12th with the author of TAG!, Matt Muscat. Register for the August 20th Zoom Meeting to hear David Stevens share his views on COVID and the mortgage market. August 27th is the date for this years’ PAC To School event. Register for this Virtual Happy Hour, hosted by Dave Meurer to raise money for the MMBBA PAC.

Capital Markets

Markets digested a mixed bag of economic releases and news to close last week. There was the expected weak GDP data, a resurgence of coronavirus cases on the East Coast, positive earnings from Big Tech, but terrible losses in oil and gas and disagreement in Washington on stimulus. The result was not much movement for MBS and Treasuries by Friday’s end; the yield curve steepened, but the 10-year ended unchanged from its opening level.

Aside from Q2 GDP contracting at its worst rate in decades, PCE Personal income declined more than expected in June, and May’s figure was revised downward. Personal spending increased, but not as much as expected and the PCE Price Index and core-PCE Price Index came in as expected. The report showed any minimal gain in wages and salaries due to the economy reopening were not enough to offset the decline in personal current transfer receipts, which that imbalance would only worsen without further government assistance.

(Speaking of government assistance, Democrats and Republicans couldn’t reach agreement by the weekend on the new stimulus package. If the $600-a-week supplemental benefits lapse for the roughly 30 million unemployed Americans on government assistance, that is roughly $72 billion per month in lost income. Not only would that impact August income figures, but it would eventually hit as a large decline to consumer spending. Interestingly, a Congressional Budget Office report found that the generous supplemental benefit was impeding a swifter labor market recovery, as people would spend if they found new work, but there is little incentive to with the supplemental benefit.)

On Friday we also learned from the final July reading for the University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment that the Expectations Index (which dictates spending) fell back to a six-year low, and a July Chicago PMI well above expectations and back into expansionary territory. It was worse in Europe, where GDP figures from several leading economies were bad as the coronavirus has sent that economy into a recession. At home, the most recent data hint that the summer’s resurgence in COVID cases may have peaked. The seven-day moving average of new cases has fallen nearly 40 percent in Arizona over the past three weeks, 19 percent over the past two weeks in Texas and 14 percent in Florida over the past two weeks. On the flip side, New Jersey’s coronavirus transmission rate jumped and Florida just broke another daily record for deaths The U.S. has pledged up to $2.1 billion for a Sanofi, Glaxo vaccine.

This first week of August’s calendar is highlighted by Friday’s July employment report but has numerous first tier releases before then. The calendar kicks off later this morning with final July Markit manufacturing PMI and June construction spending. Fedspeak also resumes with St. Louis’ Bullard, Richmond’s Barkin, and Chicago’s Evans all offering public remarks today, while the RBA and BoE will be out with their latest monetary policy decisions on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. Tomorrow sees just the sole release of June Factory Orders before things pick up Wednesday with the Weekly MBA Mortgage Index, the July ADP Employment Change and June’s Trade Balance. Thursday brings jobless claims and the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index, before the week closes with July payrolls, as well as June Wholesale Inventories and June Consumer Credit. With regards to MBS and in addition to daily averages of $4.8 billion in Fed support, which should flip to September settle, July prepayments will be released after the close on Thursday. The NY Fed Desk will conduct three FedTrade operations today, targeting up to $5 billion MBS starting with $753 million UMBS15 2 percent and 2.5 percent followed by $2.8 billion UMBS30 2 percent through 3 percent and $1.5 billion GNII 2 percent and 2.5 percent. We start August with Agency MBS prices down/worse slightly and the 10-year yielding .55 after closing last week at 0.54 percent.

Employment

“Prime Choice Funding / PCF Wholesale is eagerly looking for a Compliance Officer, Underwriters, and Funders to join our winning team. These can be remote positions. Being an aggressively priced lender, we have the top comp plan and support. The company offers competitive compensation, outstanding benefits, great culture, and state-of-the-art technology. Please send your resume to Join Team PCF.

“Caliber Home Loans is recruiting top candidates in the mortgage industry for our Caliber Operations teams across all channels. We are offering enhanced sign-on bonuses and incentive plans for Underwriters, Processors and Closer/Funders. Looking to join a leader and make some serious money? We have approximately 500 open Operations positions available. If you’re at the top of your game and have a passion for helping customers, we want to talk to you! Interested in one of our posted job opportunities? Please contact Jonathan Stanley for consideration. Interested in a sales opportunity at Caliber? Please Brian Miller for immediate consideration. Visit the Caliber Careers website for opportunities across the organization!”

What would you do with a $100,000 bonus? theLender has an amazing bonus opportunity for operations/fulfillment employees who are employed by theLender prior to December 31st, 2020. The bonus will be paid to ONE eligible employee who meets the requirements of the bonus program. It’s that easy! And the good news is we are hiring across all departments! We currently have over 50 positions open and we want you to be part of our growing family. Send a confidential email to recruiting@theLender.com and come work for the very best in the industry. Click here for more information. 

“AmeriCU, a division of Towne Mortgage, has been partnering with Credit Unions since 1993 to deliver outstanding mortgage experiences for their membership. What makes us unique is our direct relationship with our Credit Union (CU) partners. We are looking for experienced, bilingual loan officers who are custom service oriented in the Miami/Dade and Midwest territories. The ideal candidate is a self-sourced originator who has the ability to service partners as well as prospect new CU opportunities in Spanish & English. Would you like to join a thriving, competitive, and fun organization? Contact Ilene Lubin for Southeast region opportunities (Spanish speaking is a plus). Contact Erik Kelly for Midwest region opportunities.”

ESOP—WHAT’S THAT? American Mortgage Network has the answers. It’s not exactly a word you hear every day. Yet if you are an employee who wants to be heard in the company they work for, an ESOP is the way to go. An ESOP is an employee stock ownership plan that gives workers ownership interest in the company.  Decisions are made by employees and they own the work they do. It’s very different than just receiving stock options. American Mortgage Network is a perfect example. A year old, the company has been growing quickly. Today an AmNet team of 100 is on board to be part of a fast-growing corporate phenomenon. ESOPs are becoming more popular as an effective method of engagement and recruitment. Plus they offer job stability and help plan for retirement. There is no better strategy to improve performance. In today’s economic environment, it’s a great way to address equality where everyone has a voice and shares in the success of a company. For more information, join us.