Various official investigations have made it clear that a large majority of financial institutions engaged in fraudulent manipulation of the benchmark London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) to their own advantage, and that bank management and regulators were unable to effectively monitor the activity of institutions because they are too big to manage and too big to regulate. A new study from the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College argues that the obvious conclusion of these investigations is that structural changes are needed to reduce banks to a size that can be effectively regulated.Click to continue

Freddie Mac has released the results of its 28th Annual Adjustable-Rate Mortgage (ARM) Survey of prime loan offerings, which was conducted Jan. 3-5 of this year. The results show ARM initial-period rates are at historically low levels and hybrid ARMs remain the most common adjustable-rate product in the market.Click to continue

TMS Funding, the wholesale residential lending channel of Total Mortgage Services LLC, has announced that it has launched a new flexible jumbo mortgage product into the wholesale marketplace. “This new jumbo mortgage product is further proof of TMS Funding’s commitment to the wholesale channel and the mortgage broker community,” said John Walsh, president of Total Mortgage Services LLC, the parent of Click to continue

Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC (Berkadia) has announced the launch of a new floating-rate commercial mortgage program. The program, available through Berkadia’s nationwide loan origination network, will offer bridge loans to eligible borrowers seeking to acquire or reposition properties using non-recourse commercial mortgage debt. Berkadia will service the loans and seek to provide permanent financing upon stabilization of the properties’ operations.Click to continue

Freddie Mac has released the results of its 27th Annual Adjustable-Rate Mortgage (ARM) Survey of prime loan offerings, which was conducted Jan. 3-Jan. 5 of this year, and for the third consecutive year, lenders quoted an initial rate that was above the fully-indexed rate on most ARM products, although the premiums are less than those reported in the 26th Annual ARM Survey. This means that even if short-term Treasury rates remain where they are, the first-rate adjustment would actually lower a homeowner’s mortgage payment.Click to continue