News

MountainView Servicing Group, a subsidiary of MountainView Capital Holdings, announced Monday that it will serve as the exclusive advisor for a $188 million Ginnie Mae servicing portfolio. The portfolio is comprised entirely of fixed-rate mortgage loans, 98.1 percent of which are Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, with 99.9 percent retail origination and a weighted average interest rate of 5.95 percent.

Mortgage lenders across the country have reported layoffs and substantial downsizing, a consequence of heightened regulatory scrutiny, weak job growth, and brittle markets slumbering in the wake of diminishing consumer confidence. Despite a small spurt in refinancing measures and a drop in lending rates to their lowest ebb since the turn of the century, origination loan volume remains low, and lenders are coming to terms with the fact that they will be financing fewer mortgages over a longer-than-expected period.

On Monday the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released a statement announcing the nomination of E.J. Burke, a senior executive and director at KeyBank Real Estate Capital and Corporate Banking Services, as its vice-chair. Burke has more than three decades of experience in the mortgage banking business, At KeyBank, he also served as head of real estate capital markets, presiding over its commercial mortgage division as managing director.

Dollar Bank, one of the nation's largest mutual savings banks, is teaming up with Fiserv, Inc. to institute a single online platform that streamlines all of the bank's borrower loan information. Fiserv's online, real-time servicing solution consolidates borrower information for banks, credit unions, and investors. The company says by pooling all of Dollar Bank's consumer loans onto one servicing platform, the lender can realize additional cost savings and better serve its customers at the same time.

The Federal Reserve is raising the dollar amount of mortgage fees that triggers additional disclosure requirements under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act (HOEPA). On Monday, the central bank's board of governors published its annual adjustment to the rule, bumping the amount of the fee-based trigger up 3 percent to $611, effective January 1, 2012. Currently that threshold is set at $592.

As officials consider a new candidate to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Obama administration may soon nominate a state and federal banking regulator to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). It's being reported that the administration may put forward Thomas Curry, a current member of the board of directors of the FDIC and a past bank commissioner for Massachusetts, to fill the role of comptroller of the currency.

PSM Holdings, Inc. has agreed to merge its mortgage banking arm with Oklahoma's Brookside Mortgage, LLC, forming a new entity that the parent company will manage under a wholly owned subsidiary. The merger serves as the next step in a broader expansion strategy by PSM Holdings, which it began in 2010 by acquiring another Oklahoma-based mortgage banking company, CBB, Inc., and continued by acquiring UCMC in February this year.

Elizabeth Warren has hit another hurdle on the path to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director, after a string of news reports revealed the administration is considering a former banker for the role. The buzz is that President Barack Obama and his advisers have begun to openly float Raj Date as a replacement nominee to fill the top position at the bureau. Date currently serves as a deputy under Warren and has ties to Capital One Financial and Deutsche Bank.

The top three U.S. banking regulators have issued guidelines that would require comprehensive stress tests every year for lending institutions with assets totaling $10 billion or more. The Federal Reserve, FDIC, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency proposed guidance material that would test a bank's capital preparedness and lending ability under national economic duress. The evaluation would also appraise the integrity of the banks' payout plans for shareholders.

ISGN Solutions, Inc., a mortgage industry technology and services provider, announced the appointment of Scott Slifer as its new president of sales and marketing on Thursday. An accredited Certified Mortgage Banker with 22 years of financial services experience, Silfer will preside over ISGN's marketing, business development, and client relationship management services.