Banks Slide Under 50% in MSRs; Lenders Scammed on Resumes? - IMFnews

Share Register Advertise February 04, 2021 It’s Official: Among the Top 50 Servicers, Banks are the Minority Party jbancroft@imfpubs.com Vice President Kamala Harris won’t have to cast any tie-breaking votes among the top rank of mortgage servicers as nonbanks claimed over half of the market at the end of 2020. A new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis shows nonbanks that ranked among the top 50 servicers managed $5.299 trillion in home loan accounts at the end of the year, a solid 5.7% increase from the previous quarter. That pushed the combined portfolio of the 27 nonbanks over the halfway mark. Meanwhile, total servicing held by depository institutions slipped 2.9% during the fourth quarter, shrinking their share of the top-50 market to 48.7%. The figures measure servicing activity in the broadest terms: including subservicing, servicing rights owned but serviced by other institutions, and whole loans held in portfolio. For full details and exclusive servicing tables, see the new edition of Inside Mortgage Finance, available Thursday afternoon. Mortgage Lenders Getting Catfished by Scammers? dhollier@imfpubs.com Recruiting firms that plough the fields of the mortgage industry say that, at least since late summer, they’ve seen a wave of job applicants with fake resumes. According to industry veterans, most of these resumes are posted on Internet job boards that are popular with mortgage recruiters. The job candidates typically claim to have experience with reputable mortgage companies or banks. However, when contacted by recruiters, they say they worked as contractors, which makes it difficult to verify employment. At least two reputable mortgage industry consultants, one from the East Coast and one from Texas, report that the scammers appear to be working off of scripts. This allows them to pass as experienced processors or underwriters during a telephone interview. Perhaps more disturbing, recruiters say many of these people have also been able to pass routine background checks. For the full story, see the new edition of Inside Mortgage Finance, now available online. UWM Unveils Record Earnings and Originations, Plans to Restart Jumbos pmuolo@imfpubs.com United Wholesale Mortgage, which went public roughly two weeks ago, late Wednesday reported record earnings and originations for both the fourth quarter and full year, while promising to reenter the jumbo lending arena. Its gain-on-sale margin came in at 305 basis points in 4Q20 compared to 110 bps in the year-ago period. The nonbank also vowed to return “excess cash” to shareholders when possible, a reference to dividend payments. For the quarter and full year, the Pontiac-based nonbank earned $1.37 billion and $3.38 billion, respectively. During the last three months of 2020 UWM funded $54.7 billion, edging out Wells Fargo for third place in Inside Mortgage Finance’s rankings. In FY 2020 the company originated $182.5 billion, good for fourth place. In the servicing space, it grew its portfolio to $188.3 billion, more than double what it was a year ago. In its earnings report, the nation’s largest wholesaler also revealed that it made just one jumbo mortgage in the fourth quarter, a purchase-money loan for $661,000. Like many nonbanks, the company cut back on nonagency product during the pandemic. Figure Affiliate Files $250 Million IPO with Plans to Acquire a Company bivey@imfpubs.com A newly-formed “blank check company” affiliated with Figure Technologies plans to complete a $250 million initial public offering. Figure Acquisition Corp. I is planning to acquire a company involved in financial technology and financial services. “We seek to acquire a business that has already achieved significant scale but stands to benefit from the application of Figure’s proprietary technology to drive growth and operating improvements,” FAC said. “In particular, we seek to acquire a business that can benefit from leveraging Figure’s technology platform built on Provenance blockchain.” Figure Technologies was founded in 2018 by Michael Cagney, the former chairman and CEO of SoFi. Figure has raised more than $220 million on its own and originates mortgages and various other types of loans with blockchain technology. Many of Figure Technology’s executives have similar positions at FAC. The acquisition process is just getting started, according to FAC. “We have not selected any specific business combination target and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, engaged in any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any business combination target with respect to an initial business combination with us,” the company said. Short Takes: The Billion Dollar Earners Club / The Upcoming Rocket Launch / Stone Point Strikes Again (CoreLogic) / Sold: Castle Mortgage pmuolo@imfpubs.com, nbhatia@imfpubs.com It’s not often that nonbank mortgage companies post quarterly earnings north of $1 billion — unless their name is Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac — but so far we have at least two: Rocket Companies and United Wholesale Mortgage. Rocket, the parent of Quicken, posted a stunning net profit of $2.99 billion in the third quarter while UWM, according to just-released numbers, earned $1.37 billion in 4Q... In a few weeks, Rocket will release fourth quarter results. Will it best its showing in the third quarter? Stay tuned... Mortgage tech vendor CoreLogic finally has a buyer: Stone Point Capital and Insight Partners. The accepted offer: $80 a share in cash. Readers might recall that a few months back two CoreLogic investors, Cannae Holdings and Senator Investment Group, won three board seats as part of a proxy fight for the property data and analytics provider. The two investors had sought to remove and replace up to nine directors on CoreLogic’s 12-member board, after their $7 billion acquisition bid was rejected in July... If Stone Point’s name sounds familiar, it should. The investment firm has several tentacles wrapped around the mortgage industry. One of its investments is Home Point, the nation’s 15th largest originator, which went public last Friday. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Calculated Risk Analytics (dba: Excelerate Capital) earlier in the week said it purchased Castle Holdings Corp. and its wholly owned subsidiary Castle Mortgage Corp. for an undisclosed sum. The deal was effective Feb. 1. All the parties are privately held. In a statement, the buyer said it “will operate Castle under the fictitious business name Excelerate Capital.” Fictitious? A Complete History of GSE Buybacks, Seller by Seller Since 2009, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have secured more than $80.6 billion in repurchases on loans sold into their mortgage-backed securities. Another $69.5 billion in repurchase demands was withdrawn or otherwise kicked to the curb in the same period. GSE Repurchase Activity: Cumulative to Second Quarter 2020 looks at the GSE buyback record lender by lender and year by year, providing details on every lender who has faced a buyback demand from either Fannie or Freddie since 2009. You’ll find out how much they paid, how much of it relates to each vintage of MBS, and how much they got Fannie and Freddie to back down on. To ensure delivery to your inbox, add news@imfpubs.com to your address book or safe sender list. Home | Update Your Account | Mortgage Data | User Agreement | Unsubscribe © Copyright 2020 Inside Mortgage Finance Publications 7910 Woodmont Ave., Suite 1000, Bethesda, MD 20814 Tel: (301) 951-1240; Fax: (301) 656-1709

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