“We don’t necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people.” (Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instructor.) Remember when mortgage/real estate CEOs used to say colorful things? I am sure that we will always have that, to one degree or another. Meanwhile, in our industry, the summer plods along. There are only twelve (12) legislative days left until the November election, and today on The Big Picture attorney Mitch Kider and I will discuss what that means for lenders as well as other regulatory topics. Rates aren’t doing much. Deals continue to happen as the big get bigger (the latest example being Union Home buying AmeriTrust to shoot for $20 billion a year; Rocket closed on a multibillion-dollar credit agreement with JPMorganChase that will replace the facility it took out while two of its large acquisitions were pending last year) and lawsuits are filed, and are resolved (the latest example being NEXA Lending announcing the successful resolution of all litigation between CEO Mike Kortas and former business partner Mat Grella, bringing multi-year legal matters to a close and establishing Kortas as the sole owner of NEXA Lending). (Today’s podcast can be found here. This week’s ‘casts are sponsored by JazzX, the first true end-to-end AI platform built for mortgage. From application to closing, JazzX is a new operating model that helps you scale growth, boost productivity, and transform how your team performs. Today’s has an interview with JazzX’s Varant Herculian on effective change management and a clear strategy for integrating AI into workflows in ways that empower employees and deliver measurable business outcomes.)
Employment; exec available
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The rare executive blueprint: Mortgage entrepreneur meets elite risk management! Are you ready to build a new mortgage company but need a proven roadmap, or are you looking for a seasoned Risk Executive to safeguard your company from enterprise threats? This executive brings a powerful, rare combination of two distinct skill sets: (1) The Builder and Scaler who co-founded two independent mortgage banks, took a firm from legal formation to first loan funding in just four months, and scaled operations by onboarding 70 employees in a few months, all while securing (•) Conventional, FHA, VA, USDA, and Section 184 approvals, (•) multiple warehouse lines, (•) mandatory delivery/hedging strategies, and (•) licensing across 19 states including CA, NV, and HI; and (2) This Enterprise Risk Champion who served as Chief Compliance and Risk Officer for lenders with up to 2,000+ employees, expertly managing compliance, QC, licensing, credit policy, product development, sub-servicing, and agency relations. Get a visionary who understands exactly how operations impact the bottom line… and how to protect it. If interested in connecting, please reach out to Anjelica Nixt and specify this opportunity.
“The industry is getting bigger. But are originators benefiting? Every week brings another headline about a merger, acquisition, or lender shutting its doors. Companies are getting larger, but that doesn’t always mean loan officers have more opportunities. Growth should create momentum for the people driving the business. At Planet, growth means investing where it matters most. Expanding our geographic footprint, enhancing technology that helps originators sell more, not replacing them, and delivering the products, pricing, and marketing support that help loan officers grow their business. If you’re looking for a company that’s investing in your future, not just its balance sheet, let’s have a conversation: Matt Payan, 972-898-8577.”
The Chrisman Job Board is the go-to platform for employment opportunities across the mortgage industry. For employers, adding a job listing is easy. Simply create an account and drop in your existing application link, or forward the details to our team and we’ll take care of it for you. For job seekers, joining our Talent Community is completely free. Upload your resume to be visible to hiring companies across the industry and stay connected to new opportunities as they go live.
Correspondent and wholesale products
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More professionals are looking at reverse mortgages to reengage clients with strong home equity who may be living on a limited or fixed income. What’s holding you back? HomeSafe Second, a second-lien reverse mortgage, gives you another way to help senior homeowners leverage their equity. Roughly 36 percent of homeowners aged 75+ are denied a HELOC. That represents a meaningful share of otherwise viable borrowers who may be turned away from traditional financing. If you’re running into deals that don’t fit traditional eligibility requirements, HomeSafe Second could help you capture volume that might otherwise be lost. Fill out this form to get a whitepaper on the $14.5 trillion senior home equity market. Finance of America NMLS 2285.
“Let’s connect! Citi’s Correspondent Lending Team will be at the upcoming Western Secondary Market Conference in August. We truly value these opportunities to share insights and updates in person. Citi has continued to expand our offering this year, including recent enhancements to our Non-Agency Jumbo Program that features expanded credit parameters, reduced suspense fees, and improved pricing- all designed to create more opportunities for your borrowers. We invite those attending the conference to schedule some time with us to discuss these updates and our full range of recent client experience enhancements in detail. For those unable to join us at the conference, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your dedicated Account Executive to learn about the full range of opportunities Citi Correspondent Lending offers that can contribute to the growth of your business. Prospective clients are also welcome to complete our convenient Prospective Client Questionnaire.”
Verus Mortgage Capital is heading into July with a simple focus: to make non-QM execution faster, cleaner, and more predictable as volume builds. Over the past several months, it has invested in technology and infrastructure designed to reduce friction where it matters most: pricing, turn times, and overall loan flow. The goal isn’t to reinvent non-QM. It’s to make it work better at scale. As the market continues to shift toward more complex credit profiles, execution consistency becomes the differentiator. If you’re attending Western Secondary Market Conference in Palos Verdes, contact Joel Veenstra, Head of Correspondent Sales, or call (202) 534-1822 to meet and talk through how Verus is approaching non-QM in the current cycle.
Lender and broker software, products, and services
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What if the numbers behind your technology investments told a bigger story than the headlines? Join Optimal Blue Senior Director of Solution Specialists Steve Baselice, and MarketWise Advisors Founder Jordan Brown on July 28 for a deeper look at the independent study examining the measurable financial and operational impact of Optimal Blue. Explore the five most significant findings and what they reveal about pricing performance, execution quality, operational capacity, and accuracy. Learn how the research was conducted, why certain outcomes stood out, and what the data means for lenders looking to improve margins and streamline operations in a competitive market. If you’re focused on connecting technology investments to measurable outcomes and stronger business performance, join us on Tuesday, July 28, at 1 p.m. CT for practical insights into the metrics that matter most. Secure your spot today!
The future of mortgage finance is here. Join Loan Vision on July 27 at 1:00 PM ET for the introduction of Luna, the industry’s first AI teammate designed specifically for mortgage accounting and finance teams. Meet the AI Teammate Built for Mortgage Finance! See how Luna helps users find answers faster, reduce support requests, and get more value from Loan Vision.
The next generation of mortgage lenders won’t compete based on who has the most AI tools. They’ll compete based on who has built the most intelligent enterprise. JazzX AI digital assistants don’t just automate steps, they coordinate complex decisions end-to-end across processing, underwriting, QC, and servicing. Every finding is reasoned against your guidelines and overlays, continuously reassessed as new information arrives, and cited to the specific policy that produced it. The result: lower cost per loan, faster decisions, and higher loan quality. Book a demo with our team to see how top lenders are preparing for what’s next with JazzX.
Truework, a Checkr Company, is the unified income, employment, and asset verification platform built for mortgage lenders, replacing slow, manual processes with fast and automated reports pulled directly from payroll providers and other authoritative data sources. Lenders see up to 50 percent cost savings on verifications, with faster turn times and higher accuracy. Trusted by 4 of the top 5 lenders in the US, Truework delivers verification results your team can rely on. Learn more.
Mortgage credit modernization doesn’t work unless it’s practical. With score choice advancing, lenders need the ability to test, analyze, and build confidence without cost becoming a constraint. TransUnion® moved to 99 cent pricing for VantageScore® 4.0 to help lenders evaluate performance, understand impact, and prepare for broader adoption while keeping safety and soundness at the center. To learn more about what this means for the industry, read the full announcement.
The Chrisman Marketplace is a centralized hub for vendors and service providers across the industry to be viewed by lenders in a very cost-effective manner. We’re adding new providers daily, so check back often to see what’s new. To reserve your place or learn more, contact us at info@chrismancommentary.com.
Top employers for women survey
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Is your company one of mortgage’s Top Employers for Women? The companies attracting and retaining top talent don’t leave their employer brand to chance. Mortgage Women’s 2026 Top Employers for Women recognition program honors organizations creating workplaces where women can grow, lead, and succeed. Recognition highlights your commitment to leadership development, workplace culture, and career advancement, qualities that resonate with employees, recruits, and industry peers alike. Honorees will be featured on Mortgage Women and receive a complimentary logo package to showcase their achievement across recruiting, marketing, and corporate communications. If your organization is investing in its people, now is the time to tell that story. Nominations close this Friday, July 24, 2026. Nominate your organization today and show the industry what sets your company apart.
Capital markets: oil controls bonds in these dog days
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As borrowers increasingly shop rate aggregators before ever talking to a loan officer, the margin a lender captures on execution is what funds the ability to compete on price. In MCT’s case study, How American Federal Mortgage Captures a 25 BPS Lift Over Best Efforts with MCT, readers will see how COO Mark Young’s team combined MCT’s pricing engine, real-time best execution, and hands-on advisory to sustain a 25 basis point lift over best efforts across two years, the same average opportunity MCT sees for lenders moving from best efforts to mandatory. The case study details how that lift has funded reinvestment in marketing and pricing flexibility, helping American Federal Mortgage grow from roughly $450 million toward a targeted $600 million in production this year, while ongoing monitoring of pull-through and margin keeps the desk informed on where it stands.
Price down, rates up. MBS and U.S. Treasuries extended their price selloff yesterday as rising oil prices fueled concerns that inflation could remain stubbornly persistent, pushing yields on 2-, 3-, 5-, and 7-year maturities to fresh yearly highs and leaving longer-term yields within striking distance of their peaks from earlier this year. With little economic data to guide trading, a tepid $13 billion 20-year Treasury reopening reinforced the cautious tone and kept pressure on the long end of the curve. And speaking of that long end of the yield curve, the 30-year Treasury yield has remained above 5 percent for its longest stretch since 2007, largely due to growing investor concerns over persistent inflation, worsening fiscal deficits, and the expanding supply of long-term debt. Those elevated long-bond yields come despite a Federal Reserve policy rate that is 150-basis points lower, suggesting investors are demanding a significantly larger premium to finance a Treasury market that is nearly 6x the size it was pre-Great Financial Crisis.
Although core inflation measures continue to indicate a gradual moderation in underlying price pressures, policymakers are unlikely to interpret a single favorable inflation report as conclusive evidence that inflation has been sustainably contained; the Federal Reserve is widely expected to leave its policy rate unchanged at next week’s meeting while maintaining a data-dependent stance, with the July and August inflation reports likely to play a decisive role in determining the policy outlook for September. Renewed tariff threats against Canada and persistent geopolitical uncertainty have had only a limited impact on Treasury yields, suggesting that financial markets remain characterized by modest bearish sentiment but limited conviction. With the Federal Reserve in its pre-meeting communications blackout period, subdued summer trading volumes and a sparse economic calendar this week increase the likelihood that technical positioning and market flows are exerting a greater influence on near-term price action.
Mortgage production has rebounded meaningfully from the post-QE refinancing drought, with first-half 2026 gross Agency MBS issuance up 28 percent year-over-year. The increase has been driven largely by a sharp recovery in refinance activity, although higher mortgage rates following the U.S.-Iran conflict are expected to slow prepayments and temper issuance in the months ahead. Today’s market differs significantly from 2023 because a meaningful share of borrowers still retains refinance incentive, keeping activity well above the cycle lows despite remaining below pre-pandemic norms. As a result, Agency supply is expected to stabilize rather than revisit prior troughs, though prolonged geopolitical uncertainty and higher inflation weigh on both home purchases and refinancing, with every 25-basis point increase in mortgage rates estimated to reduce monthly mortgage production by roughly $10 billion.
Today’s economic calendar kicked off with weekly jobless claims (187k, much lower than expected). Later today brings July KC Fed Manufacturing and Composite indices, as well as a 10-year TIPS auction. After overnight Iranian war news and jobless claims, Agency MBS prices are worse about .125, the 2-year is yielding 4.32, and the 10-year is yielding 4.71 after closing yesterday at 4.66 percent.
I’m just a regular guy, which has pros and cons. One of which, and I have mentioned this before, is that I gave up trying to fold fitted sheets. But here is a short instructional video, almost as good as Freddie Mac training videos. She is a trained professional, so I wasn’t lost after she said something about “lengthwise.” Fitted sheets are cheap… Maybe folding them should be a team-building exercise at corporate retreats…
Visit www.ChrismanCommentary.com for more information on our industry partners, access archived commentaries, or subscribe to the Daily Mortgage News and Commentary. You can also explore the Chrisman Marketplace, a centralized hub connecting mortgage professionals with trusted vendors and solutions. If you’re interested, check out my periodic blog on the STRATMOR Group website. STRATMOR’s current blog is “Pricing That Can Help Borrowers.” The Commentary’s podcast is available on all major platforms, including Apple and Spotify.
qoɹ & ǝᴉqqoɹ
(Market data provided in partnership with MBS Live. For free job postings and to view candidate resumes, visit the Chrisman Job Board. This newsletter is intended for sophisticated mortgage professionals only. There are no paid endorsements by me. For the latest mortgage news, visit Mortgage News Daily. For archived commentaries, or to subscribe, go to www.ChrismanCommentary.com. Copyright 2026 Chrisman LLC. All rights reserved. Paid job & product listings do appear. This report or any portion hereof may not be reprinted, sold, or redistributed without the written consent of Rob Chrisman. The views and opinions in this newsletter are mine alone unless otherwise specifically stated herein.)
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