Remember when lenders were fretting about Amazon rolling out a major home loan program? The new acronym that the mortgage industry was about to start using was “WACD” (What Amazon Can’t Do). We reminded ourselves that Amazon couldn’t do is to deliver high value and personalized service and build relationships that last a lifetime. Play to your strengths! One strength is keeping up with what is going on, especially in the regulatory world. Today’s L1 show at 2PM ET features Kathy Kraninger, former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from 2018 to 2021, now CEO of the Florida Bankers Association, with a “behind the scenes” look at being the CFPB director and setting clear “rules of the road.” Next week Rich Swerbinsky returns to the airwaves on Thursday the 18th at 3PM ET, interviewing the CFPB’s Mark McArdle on what the big misconceptions about the CFPB are, and where its focus is currently. (Found her
Talk in the hallways here at the MBA Annual in Philly? How about the cost of insurance of all types. Case in point: “What Happens When the Flood Insurance Market Goes Underwater?” The NAR commission legal issues are a big, big deal, possibly impact real estate agents’ commission structure. The cost of credit will be going up, with the evening up of tiers: ask your CRA about it. Buybacks (repurchases) have been a problem for months. Several sales managers have told me that a new reason to touch base with previous clients, besides asking about outstanding 30 percent credit card debt, is LOs reminding previous borrowers about investing their money in a money market or Treasury Direct account and earning 5 percent. The CFPB’s attention, as well as that of other regulators, is on redlining, and we can expect to see fines and penalties due to that. (Today’s podcast can be found here: Sponsored by nCino, maker of the nCino Mortgage Suite, built for the moder
Keeping things in perspective, last Thursday the White House announced a raft of measures to alleviate the ongoing baby formula shortage, which has worsened in recent weeks because of a major product recall and supply chain problems. Here in Manhattan at the MBA’s Secondary conference, participants learned that the CFPB certainly won’t be “resting on its laurels” any time soon. Not only will it not be discouraging states from creating their own CFPB-like bureaus, but we can expect the CFPB to continue to broaden its range of enforcement activities. (And servicers took note of the CFPB’s servicing bulletin yesterday.) Fortunately, most lenders and vendors are doing a very good job with compliance! Partnering with the Agencies is on the agenda, as is the ARM market, climate change (and its impact on mortgage pricing and reps & warrants), cybercrimes, and hedging. A full slate! (Today’s podcast is available here and this week’s
Remember: April is National Procrastination Month! I could tell that my cat Myrtle was displeased the other morning. She’s very secretive about her finances, but my guess is that she’s “long” residential lender stocks and procrastinated selling them. Nearly every lender’s stock price is near all-time lows, making the sellers of these companies during the last few years look like timing geniuses. Earning notes on UWM and Rocket are below, but loanDepot shares have lost about 43.8% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's decline of -16.3%. Finance of America, which had a management shakeup in mid-March and moving President Bill Dallas to an advisory role, reported a net loss for the quarter of $64 million, but improving from a $1.33 billion loss in the previous quarter. (FOA acquired Parkside last year.) Guild Mortgage saw only $32 million Adjusted Net Income, and its stock is trading near an all-time low. Retail, wholes
Life is complicated. Take the Black Knight purchase by ICE. Some vendors are out there licking their chops at their company’s valuation while others are fearing for their future as “the big boys” become formidable. Taxes? The latest headline is about how TurboTax duped consumers. (Thank you, Guy S.) Was life simpler 160 years ago? Today celebrates Mexico’s victory over France in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. It was a relatively minor battle (and the French reclaimed Puebla a year later) but a symbolic one because a small Mexican army defeated a larger occupying force. By 1867, Mexican troops had driven France from the country. Mexico is just one of twenty Hispanic countries, and lenders know that the rise in overall Hispanic home ownership in recent years played out in first-time home buyer numbers and many have “diversity” departments that encompass many lending facets including minority homeownership. Hispanic homeownership in the U