Protesters Interrupt Deflated MBA Annual Convention

Uncertainty and protests surrounded the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual convention this week in San Francisco. A group of close to 100 protesters gathered outside of the convention and a few even managed to get inside and disrupt the proceedings. One protester approached Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart on stage and called for a national foreclosure moratorium.

The following day, protesters on three occasions interrupted Karl Rove, the former deputy chief of staff and senior advisor to President Bush. Twice, protesters approached Rove and tried to make a “citizen’s arrest.” The number of registered attendees was down by 50 percent from the previous year to around 2,000. Even the most optimistic attendee did not predict a recovery for the mortgage market until 2010.

Attendance at Mortgage Industry’s Biggest Event Down 50%

2008 will go down in the record books as one of the worst years ever for the residential mortgage market. And nowhere is that more apparent than in the attendance numbers at next month’s Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual convention in San Francisco.

According to preliminary numbers released by the MBA, attendance at this point for this year’s convention is just 1,968 – or less than half of last year’s 4,010 attendance. The drop is even more pronounced if you consider that 2007’s attendance at a convention in Boston wasn’t particularly strong and reflected a mortgage industry already in turmoil and the collapse of the subprime lending industry. San Francisco is traditionally the most popular location for MBA’s annual convention. Although the theme for this year’s convention is “Winning Strategies for the New Age,” many MBA members are in survival mode and have greatly limited travel.

MBA Announces Shake-Up at the Top as Mortgage Crisis Continues

The Mortgage Bankers Association, which has seen its membership and revenue fall in the current mortgage lending crisis, announced this week that it will be replacing its president of the past seven and half years with a mortgage industry insider. MBA President Jonathan Kempner, who has served as the trade group’s top executive for the past seven and half years, will be leaving at the end of 2008 when his contract expires. Kempner said it was his personal decision to leave at this time.

Meanwhile, John Courson, who served as MBA’s elected chairman in 2003 and has led a number of smaller mortgage companies, will be replacing Kempner as president on January 1, 2009. But Courson will be joining MBA as chief operating officer starting August 1. The shake-up at the top of MBA comes at the same time the trade group has seen its financial fortunes fall with the collapse of the housing market.

MBA Secondary Conference Sees 50% Drop in Attendance

If you want to take stock of the health of the mortgage industry in 2008, you don’t have to look any further than the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Secondary Market Conference held this week in Boston. Attendance at this historically popular event was down a whopping 50 percent from just a year ago when more than 2,000 mortgage industry executives showed up. Even the exhibitor turnout was way down – from 111 exhibit booths in 2008 to just 57 this year.

MBA officials said they were pleased with getting 1,000 registrants in the current depressed mortgage market environment. But it was hard to be upbeat at the event given the prevailing sentiment that there is mostly gloom and doom in the secondary mortgage market now. “Everyone is looking for a ray of hope these days,” said one mortgage industry executive. “The problem is there isn’t much we can point to that suggests there is any recovery underway.”

Fannie and Freddie Draw Fire for Tight Underwriting, Higher Fees

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be dominating the residential mortgage market these days, funding close to 80 percent of all new loans. But nobody in the lending business seems to be patting them on the back for keeping the mortgage market afloat. Instead, lenders are criticizing the two government-sponsored enterprises for dramatically tightening underwriting and hiking a variety of fees in the current liquidity-starved mortgage environment.

“We are making better loans than we have in years. If so, what’s the need for higher fees [from Fannie and Freddie]? What does their charter say they [the GSEs] are here for?” asked David Kittle, the incoming chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, and president of Principle Wholesale Lending. MBA reportedly is actively engaged in discussions with both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac regarding their tighter underwriting and higher fee structure. And there is speculation that lenders may soon see some relief.