AmeriCatalyst

AGENDA | D2 Nov 8

VIEW DAY 1 ( Nov. 7 ) AGENDA HERE
(UPDATED SATURDAY 29 OCT 9:18 AM CST)

8:00-8:30 amMORNING COFFEE 
2.18:35 - 10:00 amTWIST AND SHOUT (IN A BIPOLAR MARKET) | Credit performance and projections for mortgage origination and MBS
On Sept. 21 the Federal Reserve introduced Operation Twist (hence the Twist in the session title), marking a departure from its previous two rounds of quantitative easing by buying bonds. Now, the Fed is selling shorter-term Treasury holdings, and buying long-term debt and mortgage-backed securities, as a partial effort to dramatically lower market interest rates. They also committed to re-invest paydowns in their agency MBS portfolio and agency debt portfolio back into agency MBS rather than U.S. Treasuries, which serves as a “game changer” for MBS supply/demand dynamics. Given the already low natural net supply of agency MBS due to diminished new home sales, tighter lending standards, and falling home prices, this substantial re-investment has resulted in out-performance by agency MBS relative to U.S. Treasury returns (hence the “and Shout” in the session title). In the session, we discussion the impact of the Fed’s policy with regard to agency and non-agency RMBS, as well as the role of government stimulation in housing recovery, asking if and when the government will step aside to allow private capital to return to the market. We also discuss the increasing role of Ginnie Mae, the current performance and prepayment speeds of agency and non-agency RMBS, investor perceptions of how close the private sector is in returning to the market, and an overview of mortgage origination volume, performance and products.
HOSTDave Hurt, Senior Vice President, CoreLogic
CO-HOSTTed Tozer, President, Ginnie Mae
PANELISTSStephen Fulton, Head of Agency Structured Product and Member US Broad Market Strategy Committee, Western Asset Management Co. (WAMCO)
Laurie Goodman, Senior Managing Director, Amherst Securities Group, LP
Steven Katz*, Chief Investment Officer, Arbor Residential Mortgage LLC (pending)
Kyle Lundstedt, Managing Director, LPS Applied Analytics
Ray Romano, Senior Advisor, The Collingwood Group
Phil Thigpen, Director, Financial Instruments, Structured Products and Real Estate Group, PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP
10:00-10:20 amBREAK
2.210:20-11:00 amNAVIGATING THE FUTURE OF MORTGAGE SERVICING | A Conversation
With Tony Meola
Unprecedented shifts have occurred in the loan servicing industry, placing Servicers at the forefront of mortgage related issues. Loan servicing has gone from processing standard transactions to a complex business with multiple customer paths that require a relationship management approach to assist customers during one of the most challenging and anxiety filled times in their lives. Bank of America Default Servicing Executive Tony Meola will describe how innovation will help the way we navigate the future of loan servicing. He will discuss the opportunity servicers have to help preserve the American Dream of home ownership and will share the three key building blocks necessary to move our industry forward. With this keynote speech, Tony begins this year’s servicing sessions.
Tony Meola, Default Servicing Executive, Bank of America
2.311:00 am-12:00 pm NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH | Establishing national servicing standards
Mortgage servicers continue to be in a losing position. In the period up to 2007, servicers could not get enough attention in this industry to get arrested. Today, it seems as though everyone wants to see them arrested. For an event that is focused on the most significant issues across the entire lifecycle of the mortgage market, our deep concerns about and support of the servicing sector have led us to place servicing issues at the center of our programs since 2002. We view servicing not as the originator’s back office, but as the customer and investor’s front office. As such, we see servicing at the center of the mortgage lifecycle, as opposed to the end of a linear process. While it is unfortunate that such crucial changes to the servicing sector have come so late in the crisis (and primarily shaped by punitive action due to homeowners’ experience), the creation and enforcement of national standards is a strong step toward overall economic remediation, market stability and establishing a degree of trust in a sector that has previously been isolated and dangerously neglected. This session examines the current status of standards being set, including the rationale and intended outcome of the new rules to follow for all stakeholders impacted by servicing performance. We also discuss the benchmarks being used for standardization. Finally, we discuss whether or not – and the timeframe in which – servicers can realistically comply with the standards being set, with one important caveat . . .
HOSTDennis Stowe, Chief Executive Officer, Residential Credit Solutions, Inc.
CO-HOSTLaurie Maggiano Director of Policy, Homeownership Preservation Office, Office of Financial Stability, U.S. Department of the Treasury
PANELISTSMeg Burns, Senior Associate Director, Office of Housing and Regulatory Policy, Federal Housing Finance Agency
Jim Davis EVP, Government Affairs, AHMSI | American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc.
Laurie Goodman, Senior Managing Director, Amherst Securities Group, LP
Diane Pendley, Managing Director, Operational Risk, FitchRatings
Faith Schwartz Executive Director, HOPE NOW, and President, Housing Finance Strategies, LLC
12:00-12:30 pmSTANDING BUFFET LUNCH IN THE WILDFLOWER ATRIUM
2.412:30-1:45 pmNO VALLEY LOW ENOUGH | Servicer Compensation and the Economics of Servicing
…are servicers being compensated enough to cover the costs of compliance while achieving higher standards in a foreclosure economy? Currently, servicers are overcompensated for their administration of performing loans, and under-compensated for the administration of sub- and nonperforming loans. While consolidation in the servicing industry has led to economies of scale for the administration of performing loans, no such scale exists for the inordinate detail and complexities involved in loss mitigation activities for sub- and nonperforming loans. By nature, “special” servicing implies special treatment that requires a substantial increase in staff and training, close coordination and monitoring of a series of third-party vendors, the need to adapt or build new servicing platforms which are not available off-the-shelf, compliance with relentless new government programs and regulation, and, of course, coordination and communication with inherently reluctant and fearful borrowers in distress. But wait, the plot thickens. Upcoming Basel III capital requirements are poised to dramatically increase capital requirements for (and thereby diminishing the value of) mortgage servicing rights. This combination of negative factors renders servicer compensation untenable in today’s market, causing most servicers to reevaluate the economic choices of maintaining a servicing platform. This session explores the crucial dilemma of servicer compensation and finding the right balance between mandatory processes and fair compensation, with a detailed discussion of the FHFA’s recent Alternative Mortgage Servicing Discussion Paper.
HOSTAmy Brandt, CEO, Vantium Capital, Inc
CO-HOSTTed Tozer, President, Ginnie Mae
PANELISTSLouis Amaya, Chief Investment Officer and Chief Operating Officer, National Asset Direct, Inc.
John Britti, EVP, Ocwen Financial Corporation
Steve Horne, Founder and CEO, Wingspan Portfolio Advisors LLC
Wes Iseley, President, Carrington Mortgage Services
Michael Lau, Executive Vice President, Phoenix Capital
Marina Walsh, Director of Policy Research, Mortgage Bankers Association
2.51:45-3:00 pmNO RIVER WIDE ENOUGH | Drowning in Litigation: the Impact on Banks and the Mortgage Industry
As the economic crisis has worsened over the past five years, the American public has transitioned through varying stages of grief. Of the Five Stages of Grief in the famous Kübler-Ross model, thus far we have encountered Denial, Bargaining and Depression. The increase in federal and state investigations and the increased lawsuits filed against financial institutions over the past year clearly indicate the latest stage – Anger. Current lawsuits center around flawed processes in servicing and foreclosures (the OCC/OTS Consent Letters and the State Attorneys General Lawsuit); the flawed process of securitization (NY AG Schneiderman), and the latest, the Sept. 2 announcement of the FHFA’s suit against 17 financial institutions to recover losses to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac due to alleged false representations on $196 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities. Those inside the financial services industry question the rationale and timing of the suits aimed at systemically important institutions, particularly at such a critical stage of an ailing economy. Others view the cases as part of an ongoing “culture war” to appease Americans who feel that they are the victims of greedy, incompetent, predatory and unpunished bankers. This session discusses current litigation, outcomes and implications, as well as upcoming penalties and litigation as the industry struggles to move forward.
HOSTToni Moss, Founder and CEO, AmeriCatalyst LLC and EuroCatalyst BV
CO-HOSTTBA
PANELISTSTalcott Franklin, Shareholder, Talcott Franklin, P.C.
Darius Kingsley, Deputy Chief, Homeownership Preservation Office, Office of Financial Stability, U.S. Department of the Treasury
Adam Levitin, Professor of Law, Georgetown University
Brian Norton, EVP, Asset Management, Arch Bay Capital
Annette Rizzo, Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia Judge, First Judicial District of Pennsylvania
Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism, Aurora Advisors
3 pmCLOSING REMARKS | END OF DAY TWO