Slowly but surely the residential lending industry is trying to turn the tide in the public's mind about the home financing process - as noted in this MBA video. And a representative of United Guarantee sent me a note saying, "United Guaranty successfully initiated an effort to have September officially recognized as National Mortgage Professionals Month to honor the efforts of the thousands of professionals nationwide who have dedicated their working lives to helping families and individuals achieve the dream of home ownership. To celebrate, UG is awarding up to 240 prizes - electronic memo tablets-to mortgage professionals who share their stories - brief or detailed - about the rewards and challenges of their jobs."

We have plenty of upcoming events and training opportunities - it is great to see. Let's take a look at some in no particular order.

Pacific Union Financial is attending the Regional NJ MBA Conference, September 29^th thru October 1^st. If you're attending the conference, this is a great moment to meet with Pacific Union's Wholesale Channel Account Executives and hear first-hand about the advantages that their lending products offer. It's also an opportunity to meet with their Wholesale Channel team members and learn about available job opportunities. Make a note on your calendar, prep up that resume and visit Pacific Union in Atlantic City at Booth #328.

On September 17^th, join NB CAMP for a luncheon at the Petaluma Community Center. Register now for NB CAMP's TRID preparation Q&A luncheon with its panel of experts. Lunch will be provided.

Cyber threats are an unfortunate yet very real trend affecting us all. Credit unions are a soft target for cybercriminals; click the link to register for this informative webinar on how to reduce risk. Cyber threats complimentary web seminar hosted by The Credit Union Journal on September 22nd. 

Prepared for the new underwriting environment? On September 9-11 in Dallas Texas, MBA is providing Risk Management, QA & Fraud Prevention Forum.

MMLA's 25^th annual Lending Conference at the Crystal Mountain Resort in Thompsonville, MI on September 20^th-22^nd. Golf, Network, LEARN and Relax at the MMLA's 25^th Annual Lending Conference - this year sessions will include topics such as networking, TRID, leadership lessons and economic forecasting.

Comergence, a provider of third-party vendor management platforms for the mortgage industry, has established a strategic relationship with noted mortgage and real estate industry consultant, motivational speaker and sales coach Ron Vaimberg to provide free training webinars and educational materials as a value-added service for the company's customers. The first one is this Thursday!

MBA Education month of September Financial Management and Strategy in-depth webinars series are available through MBA Education. Beginning September 15^th, sign up for one or all of the following webinar topics: Drilling into Accounting, Loan Level Accounting, and Hedging for Accountants and GAAP Reporting.

Mortgage Compliance Training Center, LLC (MC Training Center), a newly formed organization that is solely focused on mortgage compliance education and readiness, has officially launched operations and will start by holding an all-day, hands-on TRID workshop in Denver, Colorado on Sept. 25. The all-day workshop will be taught by Richard Horn of Richard Horn Legal PLLC, who led the TRID rule and the design of the TRID forms when he was a Senior Counsel & Special Advisor at the CFPB. The workshop will cover everything that attendees need to know in order to be ready for TRID.

Mortgage Bankers of the Carolinas is counting down to its 60^th Annual Convention in October. For more information, click the link for MBAC 60th Annual Conventional.

Registration is now open for Ellie Mae's fourth annual user conference, Ellie Mae Experience 2016. The conference will be held February 29 - March 2, 2016 at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. This year's conference theme is, "Connect. Innovate. Succeed." and encourages attendees to learn about the latest compliance, technology and marketing strategies while helping to define the next generation solutions that will shape the mortgage industry.

In company-specific news, Stonegate Mortgage founder and CEO Jim Cutillo announced he is leaving the company effective Sept. 10 but serving as a consultant over the next six months to facilitate his transition. One report noted, "After a rough year on the stock market for the company, one analyst said this is positive news for the lender" and in fact yesterday, on a day when the DOW saw another stiff decline, the price of Stonegate's stock rose almost 2%! Congrats to Richard A. Kraemer - named Interim CEO. Mr. Kraemer, who is also Chairman of the Board, will be overseeing the day-to-day management of the company until the search for a permanent CEO with the requisite leadership and mortgage industry experience is completed. Jim Smith will be President and COO. After all of this Stonegate's stock was upgraded by FBR Capital.

Arvest Bank announced two executive changes in its mortgage division yesterday: Matt Kendall was promoted to executive director of mortgage operations, and Kathleen Craig was hired as director of mortgage production operations.

M&T Bank settled a lawsuit claiming New York City lending bias. "The settlement with the Fair Housing Justice Center and nine individuals was announced on Monday, and lasts three years."

What with the education and training requirements, new appraisers aren't exactly hitting the streets in any sizeable way. And if the supply drops, economics dictates that, if demand is steady or increasing, the cost of appraisals will increase. Along those lines Bank of America has agreed to pay $36mm to settle a lawsuit from 365 employees that it failed to pay overtime to residential staff appraisers.

"Rob, what have you heard lately about PHH? There is a rumor that most of its originations come from outside sources through its private label group - true?" Do you mean the one founded in 1946 by Duane Peterson, Harley Howell and Richard Heather? Apparently PHH is moving along - it is even doing Merrill Lynch private label originations - not Bank of America. PHH and other non-banks are certainly riding the wave of non-bank originators that have taken huge chunks of market share from depository banks. Don't forget that in June CFPB Director Richard Cordray overruled an administrative law judge and fined PHH $109 million for a violation of the anti-kickback provision involving mortgage reinsurance agreements.

Last week Walter Investment Management reported it has received approval from Freddie Mac to hold mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) relating to a pool of $3.3 billion of Freddie Mac residential mortgage loans. Walter Investment said that in connection with the transaction, it acquired all of the economic benefits associated with the mortgage servicing rights as of Aug. 14. The mortgage loans are scheduled to transfer on Sept. 16. Walter Investment said that the transaction represents approximately half of the MSRs associated with $6.75 billion of agency MSRs that it anticipates acquiring. Walter Investment is a mortgage banking firm that services and originates of residential loans, including reverse loans.

Greystone has provided two loans for separate Las Vegas affordable housing properties in the amount of $30,712,000. One of the properties is Summerhill Apartments, a 221 unit property spread across 14 two-story buildings that was acquired for $13,000,000. Greystone provided a 35-year FHA-insured loan, which included restoration costs expected to reach $28,363 per unit. The second property is Villanova Apartments, which was refinanced for $17,712,000 with a 7-year Freddie Mac loan and a 30-year amortization. The property has 348 units spread across 44 two-story buildings.

The Appraisal Foundation has published two guides to help consumers and lenders better understand residential appraisals and can be useful tools for first time homebuyers. The Foundations, "A Guide to Understanding a Residential Appraisal", provides an overview of the appraisal process. The guide highlights the elements to a credible appraisal, the importance of appraiser independence, important terminology as well as how to proceed if a correction should be made to an appraisal. In addition, the Appraisal Foundation published, "Appraisers, Appraisals, & You: A Lender's Guide to USPAP", aimed to help lenders work with appraisers to properly value the collateral as part of the underwriting process. The guide includes frequently asked lender-appraiser questions and answers.

A while back MGIC reported July Operating Statistics suggesting that new notices declined by 16.2 percent YoY and increased 4.1 percent MoM. Cures of 5,379 were down 4.1 percent MoM and the cure ratio declined to 81.4 percent from 88.4 percent in June. The ending delinquent inventory was down 22.2 percent YoY compared to 22.3 percent YoY in June. Paid claims declined 1.7 percent MoM and net rescissions and denials increased to 71 from 64 in June. New insurance written reached $4.5 billion in July, which was the same level the previous month.

We're in September, but in May the American Bankers Association released its 22^nd annual Real Estate Lending Survey revealing that almost 80 percent of respondents expect regulations to reduce credit availability, with 19 percent identifying the impact as severe. The majority (90 percent) of the bank's mortgage loans made last year were qualified mortgages. Survey respondents cited that the main reason for a mortgage loan to not meet QM standards is due to high DTI ratios and a lack of required documentation but this year's survey reported the highest percentage of loans to first time homebuyers in the survey's 22 year history. The 30-year fixed rate mortgage accounted for 50.5 percent of all loans in 2014 compared to 50.3 percent the year prior. The survey revealed that bankers are most concerned about compliance and increasing regulatory burden, followed by economic uncertainty, the interest rate environment and community bank challenges. Eighty-seven percent of respondents also said that regulation is having a moderate to extreme negative impact on the bank's business.

The Mortgage Collaborative has added 8 new lenders to its network of originating lenders increasing its aggregate origination volume to over $36 billion annually. The latest lender additions include Axia Home Loans in Bellevue, WA, Crescent Mortgage in Atlanta, GA, Envoy Mortgage in Houston, TX, Home Savings & Loan in Youngstown, OH, Inlanta Mortgage in Milwaukee, WI, Market Mortgage in Worthington, OH, Prime Lending in Dallas, TX, and Sindeo, Inc. in San Francisco, CA.

Turning to the stock & bond markets, I am constantly reminded that I could never be a day trader. Monday the bond market sold off, and the only reason I heard was that West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices jumped more than $3 per barrel. Interestingly over the weekend, Stanley Fischer, vice-chairman of the Federal Reserve, said he was confident that inflation would return to the Fed's target of 2%. But August's Chicago Purchasing Managers' Index slightly missed expectations and has been exhibiting significant weakness this year.

Today the equity markets around the world are plummeting again - so you'd think the fixed income markets would be on the moon. There is no 5:30AM PDT news - generally viewed as having more of an impact on rates - but later in the morning we'll have the August ISM Index figures and July Construction Spending. To figure out where rate sheets are going to be, we saw a 2.20% close on the 10-year on Monday and this morning we're only down to 2.17% with agency MBS prices better by .250.

Jobs and Opportunities

In the jobs sector, in Southern California Majestic Home Loan continue to expend its wholesale and correspondent presence and is looking for AEs and ASMs in the Midwest and Southeast (some openings in the West as well). Founded in 1997 MHL "is now approved in 32 states, offers a full line of products, aggressive pricing, revolutionary proprietary system and more importantly, cycle time under 21 days. 'If you are losing business due to turn times, give us a call, or if you aren't able to work with your top accounts because your territory is saturated with AEs, give us a call. And if you or your customers don't have direct access to underwriters and can't get anything done, give us a call.' At MHL we know that each transaction creates the overall success of the AEs. We are TRID ready! If you're interested in learning more about working for a true customer oriented company, email Thomas Michel, EVP, National Sales Manager (909.912.7201).

Newbold Advisors, LLC announced the formation of its Mergers, Acquisitions & Sales Support (MASS) services to support both buyers and sellers. "Leveraging its experience in all aspects of mortgage banking advisory services, Newbold provides seasoned industry professionals to assist clients, buy or sell side, and their vendor partners to maximize transaction value. 'Newbold Advisors is excited to offer MASS services as a natural extension of our advisory services. We recognize that in many transactions, time is of the essence to identify both opportunities as well as the potential risks with a merger, sale or acquisition. We are able to rapidly mobilize teams to meet the needs of our clients,' said Newbold Advisors Partner Michael Wade. Newbold assists in setting up a due diligence plan, identifying risks, potential operational improvements, and structuring an action plan for the transition and integration." Contact Senior Director James Stauss (508.816.6303) with confidential inquiries.