| Consumer lookout: Loan applicants may borrow annoyance along with ... | | Posted Monday, January 29, 2007 1:06:22 PM by Blog57 Team | | When Martha Ortman and her husband decided to refinance their home last year, they agreed to have a mortgage company pull their credit report.Then came the surprise: Within hours, the Fridley couple had fielded eight calls from mortgage companies pitching them on lower rates, better terms or a faster turnaround. This went on for two weeks."It was like vultures around a dying animal," Ortman said. "They smelled blood and were drawn to it."Such uninvited pitches come as a shock to borrowers who assume their loan applications are private deals.In fact, you've just become a prized "credit-active" customer in the eyes of hundreds of lenders.They pay a premium to the three national credit bureaus for your name, address and other financial information -- just as you're ripe for a loan.The practice is known in the industry as "trigger leads." It's legal so long as Equifax, Experian and TransUnion sell the data to lenders who present a "firm" offer of "pre-approved" credit.... | |
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| | | Citigroup Acquires ABN Amro's U.S. Mortgage Loan Unit (Update5) | | Posted Tuesday, January 23, 2007 3:04:48 PM by Blog57 Team | | Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc., the biggest U.S. bank, will buy ABN Amro Holding NV's U.S. home-lending arm to expand in billings and collections, a part of the mortgage industry whose profits remain steady as the housing market slows. The purchase for an undisclosed price would add about $224 billion of mortgages to the more than $500 billion Citigroup already services, a 44 percent increase, spokesman Mark Rodgers said. An unspecified number of jobs will be cut, he said. ABN Amro Mortgage Group employs about 2,300 people, most of them at its Ann Arbor, Michigan, headquarters. New mortgages will decline about 15 percent this year, according to Credit Suisse estimates, as falling home sales slow the pace of applications. While rising short-term interest rates and a jump in defaults have cut profits on making loans, the balance of outstanding mortgages is still increasing, which means growing income for banks and other companies that send out statements to consumers and collect payments.... | |
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| | | Tarnished Reputation & Corruption Forces Ethical Mortgage Brokers to Revolt and Join Forces With Consumer Advocate, ... | | Posted Saturday, December 30, 2006 3:04:03 PM by Blog57 Team | | We are about to see a rebellion in the mortgage industry," declares Consumer Advocate Harj Gill. He added, "Homeowners are fed up with being victimized and ethical mortgage brokers are fed up with being smeared by the same shameful brush as their disgraceful counterparts." For months his office has been inundated with calls from all over the country from reputable industry professionals that want to join his crusade in eradicating predatory lending. He said most honest mortgage professionals feel frustrated, isolated and abandoned by their industry. He proclaims, "I'm going to bring all these honorable people together under one powerful organization so home loan borrowers across America know who they can trust to do business with." Consumer Advocate Gill is referring to Mortgage Brokers For Change, an organization that he founded and that is about to shake up the entire mortgage industry.... | |
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| | | Mortgage application rate continues to plunge | | Posted Thursday, December 28, 2006 1:15:35 PM by Blog57 Team | | Applications for U.S. mortgage loans plunged to their lowest level since midsummer, as refinancing activity slumped in the face of rising interest rates, an industry trade association reported Wednesday. The Market Composite Index, a measure of loan application volume, sank more than 14 percent to a reading of 555.8 for the week ended Dec. 22. That’s down from a reading of 647.6 in the week ended Dec. 15. The most recent reading was its lowest since it registered 553.3 for the week ended Aug. 4. The index, which is produced by the Mortgage Bankers Association of Washington, D.C., covers about 50 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage originations. The decline was largely the result of a drop off in refinance and adjustable-rate mortgage activity in the period.... | |
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| | | Homeowners can comment on policy plan | | Posted Wednesday, November 15, 2006 1:05:55 PM by Blog57 Team | | Pasco County homeowners will get a chance next month to air their thoughts on a proposal to make sinkhole insurance optional by state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Citizens, which writes a third of the homeowners policies in Pasco, wants approval from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation to allow non-high risk account customers to drop sinkhole coverage. Sinkhole claims have driven rate increases up by as much as 139 percent in parts of Pasco this year, and caused spikes in Hernando and north Pinellas counties, too. For customers who drop sinkhole coverage, cracks and other smaller damages would no longer be covered. But a home destroyed by a sinkhole would be covered by Citizens' catastrophic loss provision. Customers who opt to keep sinkhole coverage would have to pay more than they do now.... | |
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| | | PERSONNEL FILE | | Posted Monday, November 13, 2006 3:31:36 AM by Blog57 Team | | Stacy Fontana has joined the mortgage team at Regional Home Loans in Ocean Springs. She has 10 years experience in real estate and loan origination. Wink Companies, LLC announced its new corporate Automation Group, now serving clients with INtools Technology at the D'Iberville office at 10241 Boney Ave, and an office in Louisiana. Chris Ducote, manager of the Automation Group, is responsible for systems technology, control systems, contract services and smartplant enterprise. Jim O'Donnell joined as CAE systems engineer and is responsible for consulting, training, data migration, data conversion, and system configuration. Mary Kathryn Orcino, INtools specialist, assists in client development and training. Nicollette Mourot, INtools specialist/coordinator, focuses on technical writing for training and business development.... | |
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| | | LONDON MARKETS: London Mortgage Banks Decline After U.K. Rate Hike; ITV Soars | | Posted Saturday, November 11, 2006 3:23:41 PM by Blog57 Team | | The Bank of England's rate hike at midday on Thursday pressured shares of mortgage banks such as Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester. The top U.K. share index, the FTSE 100, lost 0.27% at 6,222.30 as drug companies including AstraZeneca (AZN) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) also declined after reports late Wednesday pointed to a Democrat win for both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Many analysts believe that the Democrats will seek to lower prescription drug prices in the U.S., where they are the highest in the world. AstraZeneca shares slipped 2.6% and GlaxoSmithKline lost 1.4%. Thursday's moves follow recent share price weakness from both companies after they released badly-received news on their pipeline progress alongside third- quarter earnings.... | |
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| | | RSA Mortgage to close | | Posted Friday, November 10, 2006 3:26:24 AM by Blog57 Team | | About 130 employees at RSA's Amherst mortgage unit will lose their jobs early next year when RSA Mortgage Solutions Inc. shuts down Jan. 5. The company is a division of Fiserv Lending Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fiserv Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV - News) in Brookfield, Wis. The shut-down does not affect RSA Automotive Solutions, another Fiserv unit with about 200 employees that operates from the same location on Main Street in Williamsville. RSA Mortgage Solutions was created about two years ago when Fiserv split in half the local operations at the former Remarketing Services of America, creating a mortgage unit and the automotive unit. James Puzniak, group president with Fiserv Lending Solutions in St. Louis was driven by the declining condition of the mortgage origination market.... | |
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| | | Block may sell mortgage unit, lowers earnings forecast | | Posted Wednesday, November 08, 2006 11:12:48 AM by Blog57 Team | | H&R Block Inc. is considering selling its Option One Mortgage Corp. and has lowered its fiscal 2007 earnings forecast because of mortgage pricing pressures and fewer-than expected mortgage loan originations. In a release after the market closed on Monday, Kansas City-based Block (NYSE: HRB - News) said that it now expects earnings for fiscal 2007, which ends April 30, to be $1.20 to $1.45 a share, down from its prior forecast of $1.60 to $1.85 a share. Block said the lowered forecast "is entirely attributable to changes in the near-term outlook for the mortgage segment and does not include any impact from a sale or other transaction affecting the business." "The expectation that we had was that the mortgage pricing environment had to right itself, and currently we don't see that happening," Block Chairman and CEO Mark Ernst said Tuesday at the FTN Midwest Securities Conference in New York City.... | |
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| | | Company Grows Market Share by Offering Service For Free | | Posted Tuesday, November 07, 2006 1:19:21 PM by Blog57 Team | | STUART, FL - In today's market with declining loan volumes, many mortgage companies are looking for ways to cut costs, which might be perfect timing for a new company that is offering a free loan origination system (LOS) designed for use by any size company and is now boasting at adding over 1,300 companies in just a few months. TeraVendo is breaking into the LOS market by offering its LoanAce program for free to any size mortgage company. “We don't charge now, and we have no plans to ever charge a license or maintenance fee." Says Jeff Cunio, president of TeraVendo. This market strategy might be what's needed to break into a market dominated by essentially two giants, Calyx's Point and Ellie Mae's Encompass LOS systems According to David Lewis, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Ellie Mae, their LOS market share is approximately 28-30% and includes over 50% of the Top 250 companies. Lewis claims that the Encompass system is used by upwards of 13,000 companies. The system offered by Ellie Mae comes in four different versions, Personal, Standard, Professional, and Encompass Anywhere. Each offers similar features.... | |
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