Lower says team issued high-risk loans before AmCap poaching

Lower is accusing a former branch manager and his team of filing over a dozen lucrative, bad loans before departing to a rival and taking confidential information with them. The lender is suing four of its former workers and their new employer, AmCap Mortgage, asking a court to halt their use of Lower's trade secrets including customer data. The high-risk mortgages the team originated at Lower before their exit cost Lower $4 million, it claims.? "These conspirators left Lower holding the bag, which is quite heavy and has caused Lower to incur millions of dollars in damages," wrote attorneys for Lower.? The lawsuit names former Plano branch manager Jason Ozment and three members of his Oz Lending team as defendants.?

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Bayview starts asset management unit for insurers

A large servicing investor has set up an asset management division for insurers, which have shown more interest in residential mortgage-related investments as they've pulled back from the commercial sector. Bayview Asset Management formally announced the establishment of the dedicated unit for insurers on Monday. Chief Investment Officer Nancy Mueller Handal, the former head of private fixed income and alternatives at MetLife, will oversee the division. Bayview has experience managing a large number of mortgage-related assets at scale, including more than $620 billion in owned servicing. It has also purchased $163 billion in mortgages and originated $123 billion in home loans since inception.?

Small bank in Maine offers mortgages friendly to devout Muslims

Androscoggin Bank in Maine observed a relatively small but steadily growing Muslim population in its home city of Lewiston — the state's second largest — as well as the more populated Portland area in which it also operates. Homeownership has been slower to keep pace because adherence to religious law for devout Muslims — known as Sharia — prevents them from paying interest on loans. Androscoggin Bank saw other banks, credit unions and fintechs find ways to craft mortgages that are friendly to followers of Islam in states such as Michigan, Illinois and Texas with booming Muslim communities. It determined it needed to bring similar ingenuity to the more rural regions of Maine.

Credit-repair firms agree to settle CFPB claims for $2.7 billion

Some of the country's largest credit-repair businesses agreed to settle Consumer Financial Protection Bureau allegations of illegal telemarketing practices for $2.7 billion. Included in the settlement were Lexington Law and CreditRepair.com, which are marketed "through a web of entities" including PGX Holdings Inc., the CFPB said in a statement Monday. PGX filed for bankruptcy after the court ruled in favor of the CFPB in March, finding that the credit-repair brands violated rules banning the collection of fees upfront.?

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Home price growth pace increased in 2Q

Home prices nationwide increased 3% in the second quarter year-over-year, compared with the same period in 2022, a slight slowdown from the annual pace for the first quarter, the Federal Housing Finance Agency found. They were up 1.7% quarter-to-quarter, the highest gain since the second quarter of 2022, when prices rose 3.3% from the first quarter of that year. Price growth did slow on a monthly basis, to 0.3% in June after two consecutive periods where values increased by 0.7%.

Ishbia pledged UWM shares worth $4.6 billion ahead of NBA deal

Mat Ishbia, the new owner of the Phoenix Suns, pledged more than half of mortgage giant UWM Holdings Corp.'s outstanding shares to secure loans before buying the NBA team for a record $4 billion. Ishbia, UWM's chairman and chief executive officer, pledged stock he controls currently worth about $4.6 billion to back two loans that were finalized days before his purchase of the Suns was approved. He holds his stake through SFS Holding Corp., which owns 94% of UWM's outstanding stock and pledged the shares, according to the firm's 2023 proxy statement. Other investors in SFS include his brother Justin, managing partner of Shore Capital who bought a stake in the team alongside Mat.?

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