The Bank of Russia has reduced its benchmark interest rate to 6.5% from 7%, the sharpest cut in two years, and the EU has granted a Brexit extension to the UK. Mildly interesting. The U.S. saw something Friday that we hadn’t seen for nearly all of 2019: bank closures. In Ohio, Resolute Bank in Maumee was closed and Buckeye State Bank in Powell assumed its deposits. And in neighboring Kentucky, Louisa Community Bank’s deposits went to Kentucky Farmers Bank Corporation in Catlettsburg. And here’s something that may turn some heads: hallway scuttlebutt during the MBA’s conference about the Department of Justice and HUD collaborating on the loan level certification that will provide clarity on defect taxonomy and the False Claims Act. Watch for a 60-day comment period about the proposal.

Lender Products and Services

Flagstar Bank has named John Gibson national sales director for its Third-Party Originations Division. In this position, he is responsible for the strategic direction, growth and profitability of Flagstar’s broker and correspondent channels. He brings to Flagstar more than 25 years’ experience in the mortgage industry, covering both wholesale and retail lending, as well as hiring, training, origination and servicing. Prior to joining Flagstar, he was with Caliber Home Loans, Inc., for eight years, most recently as executive vice president of Wholesale Lending Production. He started his career and spent 14 years at Wachovia, a Wells Fargo company, leading mortgage sales and strategy on both the wholesale and retail side. Learn More.

Want help managing your client relationships and growing your business? United Wholesale Mortgage recently introduced an all-new, all-inclusive portal, Brand 360, which includes a feature called Client Connect that does just that. By opting in to receive alerts, UWM will notify you when it’s time to reconnect with your clients. Available alerts include New Listing, Credit Watch, Rate Watch, Market Watch, Equity Watch, M.I. Drop, Birthday and Loan Anniversary. Better yet? You can have UWM reach out to your clients automatically on your behalf. Take advantage of Client Connect by signing up with UWM now.

“Just like the state of Texas, Mr. Cooper has BIG news to share - We’re excited to announce the successful launch of MOXI (Mortgage Originations Xpress Interface), our new Delegated Correspondent technology innovation and loan management solution. MOXI offers dynamic features such as drag and drop document delivery, self-service ad hoc reporting, instant bulk registrations and eligibility for Hybrid AOT just to name a few. Also, no FNMA 3.2 is required! AND that’s not all!  Significant technology investments continue as we’re in development to introduce an innovative Non-Delegated platform in early 2020. Our 2020 roadmap also includes Non-QM offerings. If you’re in Austin this week, stop by our meeting space to meet MOXI. Your Regional Sales team can provide the details. For a preview of MOXI’s capabilities, view the Meet MOXI video here. Mr. Cooper is top 10 Correspondent investor, a premier Co-Issue investor and the largest non-bank servicer with a servicing portfolio $640B+. For information, visit us.

 If you missed the Women with Vision Summit in Tampa, let’s get you up to speed. The award celebrated 25 women within the mortgage industry bringing community and connection to the conversation. Award recipients were honored for their accomplishments, for creating opportunities for fellow professionals and encouraging one another to expand their networks. Computershare Loan Services, an end-to-end service provider in the mortgage industry, congratulates Head of US Compliance, Leesa Logan and Michelle Sapit, VP of Secondary Marketing for being recognized as Women with Vision award by 20/20 Vision for Success Coaching and Mortgage Women Magazine.

FEMA Updated Disaster News

Fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, they all flow through FEMA. Lenders and investors base triggering their disaster policies off of FEMA’s declaration; it doesn’t make much sense to base policies off of someone’s word for it.

An update has been made to the Bayview | Lakeview Loan Servicing Disaster File either declaring a new disaster or updating an existing disaster.

Mortgage Solutions Financial posted an update on the Mississippi Flooding Disaster Alert.

On 10/24/2019, FEMA declared federal disaster aid with individual assistance to 1 additional Texas county, San Jacinto, affected by Tropical Storm Imelda. AmeriHome Mortgage issue a reminder to review its disaster policy. For Loans utilizing a Fannie Mae Appraisal Waiver or Freddie Mac ACE offer, the following requirements apply if the property is in a FEMA declared disaster area with individual assistance. If the FEMA declared Incident Begin Date is Prior to Loan close - the Appraisal Waiver or ACE offer may not be exercised, and a full appraisal is required. After Loan close – an inspection, including interior inspection and photos, is required.

loanDepot Wholesale/Correspondent Weekly Announcement October 14th includes Selling Guide Announcement 2019-08 and Texas Disaster Announcement Update.

DataVerify’s sister company, FZDS, will now be known as DataVerify Flood Services and DataVerify will be able to offer flood zone determination. As the industry leader in risk mitigation, this additional service as crucial to creating the overall workflow that lenders are looking for in this modern era of lending. As a National Flood Determination Association member company, DataVerify Flood Services offers state-of-the-art mapping, tracking, convenient reporting options, and dependable flood zone determinations. Leading-edge technology enables DataVerify Flood Services to provide timely and reliable determinations during the lending process while enabling reliable property tracking throughout the life of the loan, thus ensuring its status remains compliant with the mandatory purchase requirement.

Capital Markets

What is the chatter from the MBA’s conference? How about the FHFA taking on an advisory roll (versus a regulatory roll)? No Agency ever wants to become obsolete, and the hallway chatter has the FHFA, currently overseeing Freddie and Fannie for the U.S. Government, helping the GSEs raise capital, keep capital, and lead them out of conservatorship.  Trying to finalize capital rule to make that happen (currently at $12b)

Looking at rates, U.S. and global economic data remained soft over the last week. Purchasing managers' indices showed contraction for the Eurozone as well as its largest economy, Germany. Monetary policy for the region was left unchanged with asset purchases scheduled to start soon. Back stateside, existing home sales fell in September but are up 3.9 percent over the last twelve months. Inventory is at a tight 4.1 months' worth and prices increased 5.9 percent. Meanwhile sales of new home declined in September to an annualized rate of 701,000 but are up 15+ percent over the last year. However, unlike with existing home, new home prices are down 8.8 percent over the last twelve months; a sign that builders have shifted from move-up homes to starter homes. And we saw residential applications drop significantly from the week prior.

Yes, there are minute market fluctuations day-to-day, but the major headlines driving rates and expectations (the trade war and Brexit) have seemed largely unchanged over the last six months. U.S. Treasury yields pulled back slightly to close Friday, including the 10-year ending the week +4 bps to 1.80 percent, after a risk-on move in the stock market drove the S&P to a near all-time high and led to risk-off trading in the Treasury market. None of the recent negative indicators, like soft U.S. economic data or earnings reports, are being seen as a portent of imminent doom that fosters a flight to safety. The majority of Friday’s action specifically was a result of news that the U.S. and China are close to finalizing some sections of the "Phase One" trade agreement after a call between senior officials. Still, global growth continues to slow, and the trade standoff remains unresolved.

Reports have China asking the U.S. to cancel the tariff hike set to go into effect December 15 and remove the tariff imposed on September 15 in exchange for boosting its purchases of U.S. agricultural products. The University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment for October was largely obscured by larger headlines, though the figure missed expectations slightly, despite signaling positive feelings about income and job growth that drowned out the headline volatility involving trade/tariff issues and the impeachment inquiry. Remember, President Trump also increased levies on goods from Europe earlier this month, and tensions could rise if he makes good on his threat to impose a tariff on imported cars next month. Considering the Fed’s reputation for playing it safe, many investors have already planned for a rate decrease of a quarter percentage point at its meeting this week.

The other big economic news this week, aside from the Fed, is Brexit. Sound familiar? With Brexit’s October 31 deadline looming, the EU have granted a three-month extension. Prime Minister Johnson challenged British lawmakers to hold a snap election on December 12, hoping to win a popular mandate that would allow him to push through his proposal. Parliament must still approve the vote, and that’s another uphill battle. For businesses, it’s chaos.

Today’s calendar begins with September Advanced International Trade in Goods, Advanced Retail Inventories, and Advanced Wholesale Inventories for September. Later in the morning brings the Chicago Fed National Activity Index for September, the Dallas Fed Manufacturing Business Index for October, a Treasury release of the Q4 borrowing estimate, and the NY Fed will conduct a GNII FedTrade operation ($481 million 3 percent and 3.5 percent) followed by the release of the new two-week FedTrade schedule covering the October 29 to November 14 period.

Tomorrow, investors will be watching for figures from the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index for August, Consumer Confidence for October, and Pending Home Sales for September. Wednesday is arguably the most important day of the economic week, and in addition to rate change decisions from the FOMC and the Bank of Canada, includes the ADP Employment Change for October, Q3 GDP - Advance, EIA Crude Oil Inventories, as well as the details of the Quarterly Refunding. Thursday brings Q3 Employment Cost Index, Personal Income and Spending figures, the Core PCE Price Index for September, Chicago PMI for October, and a rate decision overnight from the Bank of Japan. The week closes with the always-important October Employment Situation Report, the ISM Manufacturing Index for October, and Construction Spending for September. Fedspeak resumes on Friday with Vice Chair Clarida and New York’s Williams. Overseas releases that may impact trading stateside include German employment, European inflation and China’s manufacturing PMI. We begin today with Agency MBS prices worse .125 and the 10-year yielding 1.84% with the temporary extension of the U.K. leaving the European Union in place removing some uncertainty.

Employment and Business Opportunity

A large, well-capitalized wholesale lender headquartered in Orange County, CA is looking for an experienced Encompass Programmer Analyst. The ideal candidate will have experience working in the Encompass SDK, building complex business rules and other plugins using Visual Basic and C#, and help optimize workflows. Resumes can be confidentially submitted to Chrisman LLC’s Anjelica Nixt; please specify opportunity.

A national title Insurance agency in New York State is looking for a partner to increase its sales. The title & escrow agency has been around for over 15 years with a staff of 12 including two attorneys. The ideal partner is someone with many banking and real estate connections looking to either merge, joint venture or become partners with the sole principal of the title agency. This individual or company understands the profitability within the title industry and is looking to get involved on the title side. It's a dream scenario for someone(s) to walk in here and use this national platform to get involved in the title industry.  Interested principals should send a confidential note of interest to Anjelica Nixt and I will pass it along to the president of the company.

Thrive Mortgage is pleased to welcome all attendees to the MBA Annual Expo in Austin, TX. Thrive is very well represented in this year’s events including their Chief Operating Officer, Selene Kellam, presenting at the Future Leaders session held Sunday afternoon.  “It’s an honor to have been selected to be a part of this amazing group of professionals,” stated Kellam.  “MBA is hugely important organization and we are thrilled to join them in shaping the future of our industry.” Much of Thrive’s leadership is on hand meeting with many other industry leaders, as well as Thrive’s Media Team to chronicle the event.  We invite you to connect with us while you’re in town and hear firsthand what it means to Thrive! For more info about Thrive Mortgage, or to meet with members of our leadership team while you’re in town,  reach out to us at Marketing-Dept@ThriveMortgage.com!