Tag Archives: Investors

Mortgage rates continued to show signs of stability this week, with rates for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage largely repeating a series of bumpy but steady fluctuations. Real estate Web site Zillow fielded 3.88 percent for the 30-year loan, nine basis points down from 3.97 percent last week after a back-and-forth between 3.89 percent and 3.98 percent. The company said that rates for the 15-year loan averaged 3.1 percent this week, with those for 5-year and 1-year adjustable-rate mortgages not far behind at 2.72 percent.

QBE FIRST has named a new CEO, recently announcing the appointment of Christopher Davies to the executive position. The company will capitalize on Davies' two decades of experience in the banking and mortgage industries to promote the growth of QBE FIRST throughout North America.

Central Pacific Financial Corp. has announced the addition of a new executive position within the company's subsidiary, Central Pacific Bank. The financial institution has appointed Lance Mizumoto to the newly established role of executive vice president and chief banking officer. Mizumoto has been a part of CPB since 2005, and most recently, he served as the bank's executive vice president of the commercial markets group. During his three decade career in the industry, Mizumoto has garnered extensive leadership experience in corporate banking, commercial lending, and trade finance.

State regulators shuttered two banks Friday, lifting the national tally to 15 for 2012 so far. Branches fell dark for Rock Spring, Georgia-based Covenant Bank & Trust and Wilmette, Illinois-based Premier Bank. Covenant Bank & Trust went under with $95.7 million in total assets and $90.6 million in total deposits, burning $31.5 million from the FDIC├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós Deposit Insurance Fund. Stearns Bank signed off on a loss-share transaction to cover $71.6 million in assets from the financial institution. The International Bank of Chicago picked up Premier Bank in a separate transaction.

In Georgia, credit unions are experiencing growth thanks to attractive terms for borrowers. According to the Georgia Credit Union Affiliates (GCUA), the state recorded a 3.3 percent uptick in membership during 2011. The rise in membership represents a 1 percent improvement over credit union growth for 2010. Georgia residents moving their business to the credit union sector cited lower fees and better interest rates for many services as the chief catalysts behind their decision to pursue membership.

The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has officially lost its bid to dismiss a lawsuit initiated by hedge fund Dodona I LLC over claims that the company misrepresented a $2 billion offering of collateralized debt obligations. U.S. District Judge Victor Marreno rescinded Goldman's move to have the case dismissed, and Dodona will now continue to pursue its legal proceedings against the company in federal court. Goldman is currently facing several lawsuits related to its RMBS offerings. Specifically, Dodona filed its lawsuit over Hudson Mezzanine Funding 2006-I and 2006-2 CDOs.

The Pending-Home Sales Index edged down February to 96.5 from January's 97.0 which had been the highest level since April 2010, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday. The index slipped for just the second time in the last five months but was 9.2 percent ahead of the level in February 2011. It remains far below the April 2005 down 26. The index began in January 2005. Pending-home sales are counted when sales contracts are signed, and are viewed as a leading indicator of existing home sales; re-sales should be stronger over the next few months.

Prompting the delay of the company's annual meeting, CoreLogic has announced its intention to add new, independent members to its board of directors. The decision represents the continuation of CoreLogic's initiative to bolster its board, which the company previously put on hold in order to conduct a strategic review process. Giving the company's nominating and corporate governance committee sufficient time to consider the potential additions to the board, CoreLogic will postpone its annual stockholders meeting until the summer of 2012.

Economists redrew their expectations for home prices for 2012, slashing forecasts from 0.2 percent to 0.7 percent. Real estate Web site Zillow.com partnered with Pulsenomics LLC to project prices in a Home Price Expectations Survey it released earlier Wednesday. More than 100 economists and real estate experts said in their survey responses, with the more optimistic saying that prices could lift 1.4 percent next year, down from 1.8 percent. Drawing on a Standard & Poor├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós/Case-Shiller Index, Zillow projected that home prices would climb by 1.39 percent next year.

Renewed hope for Europe and the U.S. economy helped interest rates reach their highest peak since December and drove down mortgage applications by 7.4 percent last week. The Mortgage Bankers Association found in a weekly survey that application volume declined by 7.1 percent on a seasonally unadjusted basis from the week earlier. The refinance share of mortgage activity fell to 73.4 percent of total volume, the lowest figure since July last year. The Refinance Index saw declines by 9.3 percent and 4.31 percent for the four-week moving average, respectively.