Tag Archives: Investors

The Justice Department (DoJ) and Standard & Poor's (S&P) are at odds with other over civil fraud charges stemming from an alleged scheme to defraud investors in the lead-up to 2008's financial meltdown. The DoJ filed a civil lawsuit against S&P and its parent company, McGraw-Hill, Monday, alleging that S&P "knowingly [issued] inflated credit ratings" for collateralized debt obligations in the years before the crash, misrepresenting their creditworthiness and understating their risks.

CBRE Capital Markets was 2012's top seller of multifamily loans, according to a release from Freddie Mac.

A new poll from the Consumer Reports National Research Center (CRNRC) shows consumer confidence is off to a sluggish start in 2013.

Realtors in December expected prices to rise by about 3.5 percent over the next year, while consumer estimates were more modest at 2.5 percent for the same time period, Capital Economics noted in its monthly housing report. The estimates show a growing optimism among those groups. But, with the low supply of inventory, Capital Economics anticipates much bigger gains.

Fannie Mae maintained its position as the largest source for multifamily financing in 2012 after providing $33.8 billion to the sector.

The percentage of banks reporting stronger demand for mortgage loans dropped in the first quarter from the fourth quarter last year, and a slightly greater percentage are reporting easing lending standards, the Federal Reserve Reported Monday. In the case of "traditional" mortgage loans, 4.6 percent of banks reported standards easing somewhat. While the survey results suggest a direction of lending standards, they could be misleading: A bank which has tightened lending standards as much as possible may not ease them but cannot tighten further.

Commercial and multifamily originations increased 24 percent from 2011 to 2012, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

A new report from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) asserts the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) drove banks to make riskier loans.

Subprime credit scores are declining across the country with strong declines in a few rebounding markets, according to Atlanta-based Equifax, a leading credit reporting agency. Designating credit scores below 620 as "subprime," Equifax found the number of subprime borrowers decreased 2.1 percent from the third quarter of 2011 to the third quarter of 2012. The 2.1 percent translates to about 1 million Americans who rose from the subprime category.

ISGN Corporation, a provider of end-to-end technology services to the mortgage industry, announced three new hires and one promotion to round out the company's senior leadership team.