City Home Mortgage: Home Mortgage Kansas City

Bank of America Corp., seeking approval of its Countrywide Financial Corp. takeover, plans to modify at least $40 billion of mortgages during the next two years to keep customers in their homes. Bank of America said that it will locate its national consumer mortgage headquarters in Calabasas, Calif., once it completes its acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp. Bank of America also plans to double its community development lending, which focuses on affordable housing, small businesses and people in low-income and minority neighborhoods, to $1.5 trillion over 10 years. To accomplish this, the company will offer borrowers several options, including loan modifications and payment forbearance. It will not charge borrowers in foreclosure new late charges, and, in some cases, will waive prepayment penalties. Critics have said that BofA needs to make a strong commitment to working with troubled borrowers and minority communities in the wake of the proposed acquisition, which would ostensibly create the nation’s largest mortgage banking operation.

Tags: Affordable Housing.

First National had a strong start to 2008, with solid increases in our key metrics,” said Stephen Smith, Chairman and President. First National Financial Income Fund owns a 19.97% interest in First National Financial LP, a Canadian-based originator, underwriter and servicer of predominantly prime residential (single family and multi-unit) and commercial mortgages. First National’s mortgages under administration were $34.6 billion at March 31, 2008, up 36% from $25.4 billion at March 31, 2007 and up 5% from $33.1 billion at December 31, 2007.

Tags: Commercial Mortgages, Residential Home Mortgages.

Canadian banks will improve certain disclosure practices as urged by the G7 in its recent Financial Stability Forum report. The severity of the financial crisis has prompted an extraordinary meeting of the heads of the central bank, the country’s banking regulator, the federal Finance Department and the big banks, who will gather this morning to talk about what Canada should do to prevent another liquidity crisis. Within 100 days, Canadian banks will establish and adopt “leading practices for disclosure” by tweaking the way they disclose bank securities at mark-to-market values, among other items. Policy makers and regulators are under pressure to show they are taking action in the wake of the financial turmoil that’s reverberated in markets around the world.

Tags: Banks, Financial Crisis, Financial Stability, Market Values.