Tag Archives: Investors

Signaling the still-steady role played by eurozone affairs in U.S. markets, real estate Web site ZIllow found interest rates for mortgage loans by and large rising this week. The Web site found the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage ticking up to land somewhere between 3.67 percent and 3.76 percent before arriving at the latter rate Tuesday. For the 15-year loan, the rate hovered around 3 percent, while rates for 5-year and 1-year adjustable-rate mortgages stayed near 2.75 percent.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took steps Tuesday to engage mortgage lenders by forming a small business panel to review the integration of mortgage disclosure requirements into a single uniform document. The Dodd-Frank Act obligates the bureau to streamline conflicting rules and statutory requirements from the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and Truth-in-Lending Act. The CFPB billed the panel as a way to increase transparency with mortgage lenders.

The federal agency responsible for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac released a proposal Tuesday that calls for lawmakers to gradually wean the GSEs off taxpayer funds and stand up a new secondary market, replete with new institutions, securitization measures, and servicing standards. The proposal outlines steps for ways to shift risk and responsibility from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to a new market that lawmakers would need to establish without destabilizing a cornerstone of the economy.

A onetime candidate for mayor of a city in Georgia and woman in New Jersey found themselves sentenced by separate courts to several years in prison. MReport sourced the stories Monday from several news outlets. According to one, ex-mayoral candidate Gregory Cordell, a real estate agent and developer, received his sentence for $1.25 million in mortgage fraud for a property in Cartersville. The woman in New Jersey bilked CitiFinancial out of funds for a mortgage, according to another news source.

Residents of Connecticut will receive $190 million from the historic $25-billion settlement with five servicers, according to the office of the state attorney general.

Rolling out a new information technology services division, ISGN Corporation is expanding its service offerings for clients in the mortgage and real estate industries.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished by end of day Friday at a clip just below 13,000 points, lifting stocks and shares for all but one of the four major financial institutions. The jump reportedly marks the highest for the Dow Jones since 2008, just before the worst of the financial crisis, as investors got bullish on another round of bailout votes for debt-saddled Greece. The index closed on a .35-percent hike Friday, up 45.79 points, giving Wells Fargo a 2.37-percent boost to wrap up stocks at $31.09 per share.

After months of wrangling, the House and Senate passed a permanent payroll tax cut extension Friday without imposing controversial guarantee fees for lenders with government-backed mortgages. The House passed the bill, reportedly worth $100 billion, by a margin of 293 to 132 before the Senate cleared it by a vote of 60 to 36. Partisanship on Capitol Hill stalled the extension last fall, prompting both chambers of Congress to field a temporary two-month extension that hiked guarantee fees for lenders. The move netted criticism from various trade groups.

Thompson & Knight LLP has gained two new partners for its Real Estate Capital Markets division, announcing the addition of attorneys William M. O'Connor and Evelyn H. Seeler to the company's New York office. In their new positions with the law firm, O'Connor and Seeler will be responsible for handling clients within the Real Estate and Capital Markets unit, as well as restructuring and bankruptcy matters.

The technology division of Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (JKHY), is experiencing an uptick in interest from credit unions, announcing that more than 16 existing credit union clients have recently opted to engage the company's outsourcing module through JKHY's Symitar unit. JKHY's Symitar division encompasses both in-house and outsourced platform options, and credit unions are increasingly migrating from the in-house offering, Episys, to the outsourced version, EASE.