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Puerto Rico bans discrimination against those who wear Afros, other styles

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s governor on Wednesday signed a law that prohibits discrimination against people wearing Afros, curls, locs, twists, braids and other hairstyles in the racially diverse U.S. territory. The move was celebrated by those who had long demanded explicit protection related to work, housing, education and public services. “It’s a victory […]

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U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Reaches Agreement to Address Antisemitic Harassment in Carmel Unified School District in California

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The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced today the resolution of a complaint alleging antisemitic harassment of students at a school in the Carmel Unified School District in California. The district entered into an agreement to ensure its compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI) […]

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Baron Silverstein on Newrez’s AI journey and the call center question

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Like most of its peers, top-five mortgage lender Newrez is prioritizing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to provide call center representatives with real-time information on its policies, procedures, and guidelines to improve customers’ experience, according to its president, Baron Silverstein. “From a prioritization perspective, we’re right now, with my management team, focused on customer […]

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Former US diplomat and author Martin Indyk dies at 73

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NORWICH, Conn. — Veteran diplomat Martin S. Indyk, an author and leader at prominent U.S. think tanks who devoted years to finding a path toward peace in the Middle East, died Thursday. He was 73. His wife, Gahl Hodges Burt, confirmed in a phone call that he died from complications of esophageal cancer at the couple’s […]

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HUD, FHA further extend Maui foreclosure moratorium to 2025

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The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) on Friday published Mortgagee Letter 2024-15, which extends a foreclosure moratorium on the Hawaiian island of Maui through Jan. 1, 2025, for FHA-insured forward mortgages and Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs). The moratorium, initially scheduled to expire on May 6 after a previous extension, was pushed into August earlier this […]

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Atlantic Coast Mortgage adopts Nextwave CRM

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Virginia-based Atlantic Coast Mortgage announced this week that residential and wholesale banking software company CRMNow’s mortgage-oriented customer relationship management (CRM) product, Nextwave CRM, will be used by its loan originators across the 30 states it operates in. “Nextwave CRM was the clear choice to drive our customer-centric culture and CRM initiative,” Patrick Collins, chief strategy […]

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Lower’s Craig Montgomery talks growth goals for mortgage originator mentorships

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On a recent episode of the Power House podcast, HousingWire CEO Clayton Collins chatted with Craig Montgomery, chief strategy officer at Lower and former chief production officer at CrossCountry Mortgage. Collins and Montgomery discussed Lower’s plans for growth, its strategic partnerships and how it looks to adopt an originator-first mindset to push the company toward […]

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YouTube star sets Domino installation world record

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YouTube star Lily Hevesh has been mesmerizing viewers with domino creations for 15 years. Last weekend, at the National Building Museum in Washington, she completed her most ambitious project yet: she brought down an installation of 100,000 dominoes and set a world record. Maxim Adams reports. Camera: Dmitry Shakhov, Artem Kohan. details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal […]

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Reverse mortgage veteran appointed chair of MISMO working group

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Reverse mortgage industry veteran George Morales has been appointed as the new chairperson of the dedicated reverse mortgage development workgroup (DWG) inside the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization. MISMO is a subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), which signaled its intent for more reverse mortgage involvement late last year. The reverse mortgage workgroup, which […]

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Unveiling New Tools for Educators, School Counselors and Advisors: Enhance College Decision-Making with Our Latest College Scorecard Toolkits

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By: John Garcia, Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development The U.S. Department of Education (Department), under the leadership of U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, is committed to ensuring an inclusive and accessible higher education system. As part of that commitment, the Department has developed various tools and […]

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An eye-opening experience: Housing pros react to the global tech outage

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Mortgage and real estate executives attending HousingWire‘s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit in Dallas on Tuesday have already begun to collect some lessons learned from Friday’s global tech outage as the world is still dealing with its consequences.  Different companies were impacted to different degrees by the problem, but executives said it validates their decision to […]

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AARP reveals proposals for national plan on aging

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AARP, the interest group advocating for the wellbeing of older Americans, revealed in a policy paper this month its priorities for a national plan on aging that sufficiently recognizes the changing demographics of the U.S. population, and the trend that will see 20% of all Americans become at least the age of 65 by 2030. […]

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Dunmor promotes two operations leaders

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Real estate lending shop Dunmor has promoted two employees to senior leadership positions. Andy Thienkosol, a veteran in business-purpose lending (BPL), has been named chief operating officer of the California-based lender. Melissa Perez, a former director of operations at First Republic Bank, has joined Dunmor as senior vice president of operations. Thienkosol previously served as […]

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Mortgage income software vendor integrates Fannie Mae income calculator

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Blueprint Solutions, a mortgage technology company that offers income verification tools for the industry, announced this week that it is implementing Fannie Mae’s Income Calculator into its two primary software offerings. This will help the company’s clients to more efficiently access the Fannie Mae tool, the company said. Blueprint offers two variations of mortgage income […]

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Down payment assistance programs hit an all-time high: report

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The number of down payment assistance (DPA) programs for homebuyers has reached an all-time high. That’s according to the second-quarter 2024 Homeownership Program Index report from Down Payment Resource, which tracks homebuyer assistance programs. In Q2 2024, the number of down payment assistance options rose 2% relative to the previous quarter, while the number of […]

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DocMagic founder Dominic Iannitti has died

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Dominic Iannitti “As we mourn the loss of our friend and business inspiration, DocMagic’s longtime leadership team is well-prepared to remain steadfast in our mission and commitment to excellence in the mortgage technology space,” Lori Johnson, DocMagic’s chief operating officer, added. “We have already implemented a comprehensive succession plan to ensure a seamless transition.” Iannitti, […]

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Ukraine’s largest music festival returns with break from inescapable reality of war

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Kyiv, Ukraine — This year, Ukraine’s largest music festival struck a different chord. Gone were the international headliners, the massive performance halls and the hundreds of thousands of visitors. Instead, beloved local artists graced the stage this past weekend at the Atlas Festival — the first since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 — for a […]

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Guild Mortgage unveils in-house AI system

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San Diego-based Guild Mortgage is the latest mortgage lender to announce the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve its operations through the launch of an in-house system. The platform, dubbed GuildGPT, is integrated into Guild’s knowledge database and allows employees to deliver customized and instant information on company products and guidelines. Since its launch […]

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Kiavi closes $350M securitization of fix-and-flip loans

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San Francisco-based private lender Kiavi announced Monday that it has closed another multimillion-dollar securitization of residential transition loans (RTLs), bringing its six-month volume of issuances to nearly $1 billion. The $350 million unrated securitization announced this week adds to similar transactions that have taken place since the start of the year. In February, the company […]

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Malaysia honors new king in coronation marked by pomp

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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Traditional pomp and cannon fire Saturday marked the coronation of Malaysia’s billionaire King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, who pledged to govern fairly during the five-year term he will serve under a unique rotating monarchy system. Ibrahim, 65, was sworn in on January 31. Saturday’s coronation at the national palace formalized his role as […]

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Secondary market for construction financing could help spur multifamily developments

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“A national secondary market for construction financing could allow lenders, like state housing finance agencies and banks, to provide the investment capital needed to get multifamily housing projects built and keys in families’ hands.” This is the conclusion of a new report published by the Center for Public Enterprise, a nonprofit organization that promotes the […]

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Amid global tech outage, HUD reports FHA Connection issues

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The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) on Friday announced that its FHA Connection (FHAC) portal — which provides FHA-approved lenders and business partners with secure online access to computer systems at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) — has experienced outages in certain core services, coinciding with a widely reported global technology outage […]

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Biden-Harris Administration Approves Additional $1.2 Billion in Student Debt Relief for 35,000 Public Service Workers

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The Biden-Harris Administration announced today the approval of roughly $1.2 billion in additional student loan relief for 35,000 borrowers across the country who work in public service. These approvals are the result of significant fixes that the Administration has made to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program. This relief builds on President Biden and […]