Mortgage Broker News

November 09, 2008

Mortgage Broker News

GMAC's ResCap mortgage division is reportedly on the brink of bankruptcy. S&P cut ResCap's credit rating to "CCC-minus" on Friday--nine notches below investment grade. ResCap indirectly owns Canadian lender ResMor Trust.
The Globe & Mail says "Ottawa has been dragging its feet on making the rest of the $25-billion [mortgage buyback] available, and adding to it, because it is wary of appearing to be bending over backward to subsidize the banks." Is that true? We don't know. We do know that two more auctions are coming on Nov. 12 and Nov. 21. The last one was just completed on Oct. 23.
"We have...made some adjustments to our underwriting criteria in light of slowing Canadian real estate markets, softening of real estate values in some markets and uncertainty as to the magnitude of further softening." - Equitable Trust CEO Andrew Moor.
Merix has temporarily suspended their HELOC due to financing challenges. Basically, no one is available to fund their line of credit portion at a decent cost. Moreover, it can't be securitized (sold off in the Canadian Mortgage Bond program) because it's a readvanceable non-amortizing product.
Xceed says it's planning an expanded product line, including new "conventional, readvanceable and variable" mortgage products.
Canadian Tire had $102 million of mortgages on its balance sheet as of September 27. That's up 360% from last year, but still a small number in absolute terms.
TD Canada Trust has eliminated its open variable-rate mortgage from the broker channel. TD's open will still be available through branches. Thanks guys. :)
Daniel Putnam is now President of MortgageBrokers.com. Before joining MortgageBrokers.com Dan was Head of Sales for Macquarie Financial. Before that he was President of Mortgage Centre Canada, a division of CIBC Mortgages Inc. Putnam started his mortgage career as a mortgage specialist in Ontario.
Home Trust helped its parent company generate record earnings last quarter. It's net income rose a solid 22.3%. Other points of note:
- Home Trust has originated $2.86 billion in mortgages so far this year, up 45.9% over 2007.
- As with many lenders, Home Trust has taken advantage of the Canada Mortgage Bond program this year and sold a lot of its mortgages into the program.
- 44% of Home's mortgages this year have been insured. That's not a stat we're used to seeing with Home Trust, a lender who has historically focused primarily on non-prime business.
- Home's average loan-to-value was 66.4% last quarter versus 65.7% in 2007.
Beginning on Monday, November 10th, CitiFinancial Canada will no longer make loans above 95% loan-to-value. 95% loan-to-value uninsured refinances will still be available through CitiFinancial branches, but no longer through brokers. As we reported last week, Citi has pulled out of the broker channel.
Curious who's going to CAAMP 2008? Check here
Centum Financial has an agreement to test the integration of inContact's new Nexa CRM software with Filogix Expert mortgage origination software.
Equitable Trust funded $217.3 million of single-family mortgages last quarter--up 107.8% from the prior year. It's closed $976.9 million mortgages in total--up 25.3%. Equitable securitized and sold off $440 million worth.
We don't plug service providers very often but we'll make an exception for Brokerworx.ca. We've been using them a lot more lately because National Bank uses them, one of our key lenders. The last appraisal we requested from Brokerworx was completed in just six hours. Pretty impressive.

Posted in Mortgage Broker News

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GMAC's ResCap mortgage division is reportedly on the brink of bankruptcy. S&P cut ResCap's credit rating to "CCC-minus" on Friday--nine notches below investment grade. ResCap indirectly owns Canadian lender ResMor Trust.
The Globe & Mail says "Ottawa has been dragging its feet on making the rest of the $25-billion [mortgage buyback] available, and adding to it, because it is wary of appearing to be bending over backward to subsidize the banks." Is that true? We don't know. We do know that two more auctions are coming on Nov. 12 and Nov. 21. The last one was just completed on Oct. 23.
"We have...made some adjustments to our underwriting criteria in light of slowing Canadian real estate markets, softening of real estate values in some markets and uncertainty as to the magnitude of further softening." - Equitable Trust CEO Andrew Moor.
Merix has temporarily suspended their HELOC due to financing challenges. Basically, no one is available to fund their line of credit portion at a decent cost. Moreover, it can't be securitized (sold off in the Canadian Mortgage Bond program) because it's a readvanceable non-amortizing product.
Xceed says it's planning an expanded product line, including new "conventional, readvanceable and variable" mortgage products.
Canadian Tire had $102 million of mortgages on its balance sheet as of September 27. That's up 360% from last year, but still a small number in absolute terms.
TD Canada Trust has eliminated its open variable-rate mortgage from the broker channel. TD's open will still be available through branches. Thanks guys. :)
Daniel Putnam is now President of MortgageBrokers.com. Before joining MortgageBrokers.com Dan was Head of Sales for Macquarie Financial. Before that he was President of Mortgage Centre Canada, a division of CIBC Mortgages Inc. Putnam started his mortgage career as a mortgage specialist in Ontario.
Home Trust helped its parent company generate record earnings last quarter. It's net income rose a solid 22.3%. Other points of note:
- Home Trust has originated $2.86 billion in mortgages so far this year, up 45.9% over 2007.
- As with many lenders, Home Trust has taken advantage of the Canada Mortgage Bond program this year and sold a lot of its mortgages into the program.
- 44% of Home's mortgages this year have been insured. That's not a stat we're used to seeing with Home Trust, a lender who has historically focused primarily on non-prime business.
- Home's average loan-to-value was 66.4% last quarter versus 65.7% in 2007.
Beginning on Monday, November 10th, CitiFinancial Canada will no longer make loans above 95% loan-to-value. 95% loan-to-value uninsured refinances will still be available through CitiFinancial branches, but no longer through brokers. As we reported last week, Citi has pulled out of the broker channel.
Curious who's going to CAAMP 2008? Check here
Centum Financial has an agreement to test the integration of inContact's new Nexa CRM software with Filogix Expert mortgage origination software.
Equitable Trust funded $217.3 million of single-family mortgages last quarter--up 107.8% from the prior year. It's closed $976.9 million mortgages in total--up 25.3%. Equitable securitized and sold off $440 million worth.
We don't plug service providers very often but we'll make an exception for Brokerworx.ca. We've been using them a lot more lately because National Bank uses them, one of our key lenders. The last appraisal we requested from Brokerworx was completed in just six hours. Pretty impressive.