November 2025 - Page 2 of 5 - Chrisman Commentary

Nov. 20: Servicing, default, remote office, verification tools; Pennymac CEO on servicing; IMB profit numbers; cash-strapped CFPB?

Posted on November 20June 4 by Rob Chrisman

“Here we are, a week away from Thanksgiving, and I’m in Kansas City . My family told me to stop telling Thanksgiving jokes, but I said I couldn’t quit cold turkey.” The CFPB isn’t going away “cold turkey” but yesterday’s personnel move was a reminder that there are clever people in Washington DC. It was a follow up to Trump Administration court filings last week that said the CFPB was on track to run out of money to operate at the beginning of next year and argued that it was legally…

Voice of the Industry: David Spector (Part 3)

Posted on November 20June 4 by David Spector

The Strategic Rise of Mortgage Servicing For decades, mortgage servicing sat quietly in the background…essential, yes, but rarely viewed as the heartbeat of mortgage banking. It was historically perceived as a post-closing administrative function: collect payments, manage escrow, and stay out of trouble. Today, that world is gone. Servicing has become one of the most strategically important assets in the mortgage ecosystem, a growth engine for originators, a competitive differentiator, and…

Nov. 19: IT sales, Home equity TPO jobs; QC report, relationship, mobile lock tools; Zillow & ChatGPT; PHH reverse mortgage sale to FAR

Posted on November 19June 4 by Rob Chrisman

As I type these words, I am sitting in front of one of Chuck Berry’s early residences in St. Louis. STL has a good musical reputation, a fine mortgage association , a Fed that puts out great research, and has many nice neighborhoods. But to call this specific area where I am sitting a “transitional” neighborhood would be generous. Although there is potential, nearly every house standing could use an immense amount of work, and the residents probably aren’t regulars at home improvement…

Market Update – Meat Market

Posted on November 18June 4 by Andrew Stringer

To paraphrase one of my favorite movie quotes (from Tommy Boy): There are less orthodox ways to get a good look at a T-bone, but I’d rather take a butcher’s word for it… Over the past month, we’ve been given the daunting task of deciphering employment and inflationary data points through less conventional sources. Now that the government has reopened, we’ll soon get the opportunity to hear about the T-bone straight from the butcher’s mouth. This Thursday, we’ll finally receive a review of…

Rethinking Risk, Pricing, and Credit in a Changing Mortgage Market

Posted on November 18June 4 by Rob Chrisman

The mortgage industry is once again revisiting products and practices that many thought had been relegated to the past. Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), for example, are resurfacing…not because they are “evil,” as some headlines teasingly suggest, but because the yield-curve dynamics and affordability challenges of this cycle naturally push them back into relevance. When recessionary pressures build, the curve steepens, short-term rates ease, and borrowers begin re-examining structures…

Nov. 18: IMB wanted, AE jobs, recruiter, cap mkts execs available; AVM, marketing, tax service, block chain tools; Deep dive on Lisa Cook & alleged fraud

Posted on November 18June 4 by Rob Chrisman

Supposedly commercial air travel is back to normal, good for anyone coming in for the Mortgage Bankers Association of St. Louis event tomorrow and Thursday’s Mortgage Bankers Association of Kansas City annual luncheon. Speaking of Missouri, the Pony Express ran between St. Joseph and Sacramento for 18 months in 1860–1861, put out of business by the telegraph. (I had an ancestor, Frank “Deafy” Derrick, who rode for the Pony Express.) The telegraph was a great example of “better, faster,…

Credit Data Is No Longer Static: How Dynamic Insights Are Redefining Mortgage Lending

Posted on November 18June 4 by Satyan Merchant

For decades, credit reports were treated as snapshots – a fixed moment in time meant to summarize a borrower’s financial history. That view no longer fits today’s reality. Credit data has evolved into a living, dynamic asset that tells a story not just about who a consumer was, but how they are behaving right now and where their financial trajectory is heading. This shift is more than technical, it’s strategic – driving smarter decisions and better outcomes across the mortgage industry. This…

MISMO at 25 — The Backbone You Don’t See, But Feel Every Day

Posted on November 17June 4 by Brian Vieaux

When I stepped into the role of MISMO President just ahead of the 2025 MBA Annual Convention, I already understood MISMO’s reputation. But it wasn’t until I got behind the curtain that I truly appreciated the depth of collaboration, volunteer leadership, and shared purpose that has kept this organization going strong for more than 25 years. And if there’s a single theme that stands out from my early weeks in the role, it’s this: MISMO’s impact is everywhere, especially in the places most…

Nov. 17: AI outreach, loan loss, credit, reverse tools; STRATMOR on LO gratitude; Portable mortgages? Nope; MBA’s Joel Kan interview

Posted on November 17June 4 by Rob Chrisman

Today’s trivia: Missouri and Tennessee are tied for bordering the most states: eight. This week I head to Missouri, the jumping off point for thousands of wagon trains heading west in the mid-1800s. Back then, land grants were relatively common but home loans weren’t, LTVs were high, and repayment was usually within five years. Deals were done with a handshake. Fast forward to today, and we have Fannie Mae dropping its minimum credit score requirements and relying more on DU to assess…

Nov. 15: The uneven cost of compliance; delinquency figures; thoughts on GSE MBS purchases; Third party provider news

Posted on November 16June 4 by Rob Chrisman

The U.S. Federal Reserve doesn’t set mortgage rates, the market does. People in our biz know that mortgage rates and pricing are a function of supply and demand, not from some Administration decree for a 50-year mortgage, assumability, or portability. The same can be said of food, hence President Trump changing his tariff policy again given higher prices due to those tariffs, and precious metals, with some twists. Gold is a traditional gift in Vietnam (connoting luck), so at a record $4,380…