Tag Archives: Lenders & Servicers

Income at financial institutions insured by the FDIC rose during the second quarter, according to a report released Thursday by the agency. Total net income at FDIC-insured institutions increased 22.6 percent year-over-year to $42.2 billion in the second quarter. "Asset quality continues to recover, loan balances are trending up, fewer institutions are unprofitable, the number of problem banks is down, and the number of failures is significantly below levels of a year ago," said FDIC chairman Martin J. Gruenberg.

Consumers kept their cash--and credit cards--in their wallets in July as personal spending rose just 0.1 percent, while income increased 0.2 percent, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported Friday. Economists had expected income to grow 0.2 percent but thought spending would increase 0.3 percent.

Three prominent mortgage field service companies will fall under the ownership of one new holding company. The company, formed by Concentric Equity Partners (CEP) and TDR Capital (TDR), will own Mortgage Contracting Services, LLC (MCS), Asset Management Specialists, Inc., (AMS) and Vacant Property Specialists, LLC (VPS).

Trulia's Housing Barometer dialed up to 64 percent "back to normal" in July, the company reported.

Zillow's most recent Negative Equity Report shows approximately 12.2 million homeowners owed more on their mortgage than their home is worth last quarter, down from 13 million in the first quarter and 15.3 million the same time last year. Those 12.2 million underwater homeowners represent approximately 23.8 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage, Zillow said. For the second quarter of 2014, Zillow predicts the negative equity rate will fall to 20.9 percent, lifting an additional 1.9 million homeowners into positive equity.

The latest volume summary from Freddie Mac shows business continues to defy any sort of trend this year.

Continued speculation surrounding the Federal Reserve├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós bond purchase program drove long-term mortgages rates down this week, according to reports from Freddie Mac and Bankrate.com. Frank Nothaft, VP and chief economist at Freddie Mac, noted the decrease in fixed rates was likely the result of disappointing numbers for new home sales in July. While Bankrate also pointed to new home sales as a factor in this week's rate movements, developments abroad may have figured in, as well.

Second quarter growth was calculated at a seasonally adjusted annual 2.5 percent rate, a sharp increase from the 1.7 percent initially reported for gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of the nation's economy, a month ago.

Among bank employees, residential mortgage loan officers have experienced the greatest compensation increase over the past four years--35.6 percent, including base pay and incentive pay, according to the latest Comprehensive Financial Institutions Compensation Survey from Crowe Horwath LLP, a national public accounting consulting firm based in Chicago. Part of the rise in compensation for mortgage loan officers is the result of the refinance boom that resulted from record-low interest rates, according to Crowe Horwath.

Southwest Bank's own Tom Tallent has been elected as secretary/treasurer of the Texas Mortgage Bankers Association (TMBA) for the 2013-2014 term, the company announced.