“A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.” April 15th is in a week, the traditional date when taxes are due. Time flies. Do you realize that we have seven more months until the election? Seven more months of headlines and gaffes, posturing, missteps, and election trivia (like no Republican has been elected to the White House by a majority of Americans since 1988). I’m glad residential lending continues to motor along, albeit at a very moderate pace. Politics can determine the regulatory environment, and this Wednesday’s L1 “Mortgage Matters: The Weekly Roundup at 11AM PT has Kathy Kraninger, former director of the CFPB from 2018 to 2021, now CEO of the Florida Bankers Association. (Found here after 8:30AM ET, this week’s podcasts are sponsored by PHH Mortgage. From subservicing to correspondent lending, MSR/co-issue transactions, portfolio retention, reverse mortgages, and commercial servicing, PHH has solutions for the
Do you use make up? Charles Revson of Revlon observed, back in the days when you could observe these things, "In the factory, we make cosmetics; in the store, we sell hope.” Informed mortgage people know that hope is not a strategy, and companies can’t hope that they’re never the victim of a hack. Here in the Dallas, Texas, area, headquarters of Mr. Cooper, the company was hit with a cyberattack forcing it to lock down its systems and impacting thousands and thousands of clients of hundreds of lenders whose clients rely on them. I don’t know if live-time cyber-attack maps are for real, but they are mesmerizing. Be careful out there! As of 2023, the average cost of a data breach in the United States amounted to $9.48 million dollars, up from 9.44 million U.S. dollars in the previous year. The global average cost per data breach was 4.45 million U.S. dollars in 2023. (Today’s podcast can be found here, and this week is sponsored by nCino makers
As President Jimmy Carter celebrated his 99th birthday seven months into hospice, welcome to the 4th quarter! (Will lenders experience any “Q-4-ia”? Say out loud.) Let’s talk U.S. lists! California, Indiana, Michigan, Texas, and Virginia are top five in pumpkin growing. The National Association of Realtors, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Pharmaceuticals, American Hospital Association, and Blue Cross/Blue Shield are the leading five lobbying spenders. And you can add the Internal Revenue Service's Income Verification Express Service (IVES) to the list of "essential" government activities that would continue to operate in the event of a government shutdown. We won’t have to worry about that until mid-November, as the government kicked the can down the road and passed a Continuing Resolution that averts a government shutdown to November 17. HUD (Ginnie Mae and FHA included), USDA, and the VA will continue to operate temporarily uninterrupte
California, home of nearly 25 percent of home loans, is doing some interesting things, utility-wise. Last year came AB 205 which instructs the state’s utility commission to base the residential fixed charge on a customer’s household income level, with lower income households paying less than higher income households for grid and other costs. PG&E, along with Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, have submitted a joint plan to levy an income-based fixed rate model, with higher-income residents paying higher rates while lower-income households would pay less. I mention this because, at the national level in mortgage banking, borrowers see headlines like, “Biden rule will redistribute high-risk loan costs to homeowners with good credit.” Regardless of one’s political affiliation, a new housing report by the National Association of Realtors® reveals middle-income homeowners accumulated $122,100 in wealth
Today I’m in Manhattan, having flown in to one of the nicer malls I’ve ever walked through, aka LaGuardia Airport. ($8 billion goes a long way.) No, I am not here to avoid the terrible tornadoes that have hit our nation, and I didn’t use Rocket’s new pro-home buying credit card to book the flight. No, I am not here regarding Donald Trump’s indictment by a Manhattan grand jury, although he is expected to come to New York today and to be arraigned in criminal court tomorrow. I certainly didn’t come to spend $8 on a pack of Oreo cookies or $30 on pasta with tomato sauce, although I am. I could say that I was scouting restaurants for the MBA’s Secondary Conference next month, but I’m not. In fact, I can’t think of any really logical reason to come here, other than I wanted to be able to say I’d seen Bruce Springsteen play Madison Square Garden with my son Robbie (with MCT), which was a fine show and venue indeed. (Today&