New Residential Investment Corp., the parent company of NewRez, has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Caliber Home Loans from private equity firm Lone Star Funds in a $1.675 billion transaction.
Merchants & Marine Bank has announced the creation of Canvas Mortgage, a new residential mortgage banking division. Canvas Mortgage will operate as a standalone division of the bank and serve the bank’s trade area of Mississippi and the Alabama Gulf Coast as well surrounding communities. The new division will be led by Jonathan Shows, who will serve as president, Mortgage Production, with Sharon Rice as president, Mortgage Operations.
The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO), which maintains standards required by agencies and regulators in the housing finance industry, has announced that Black Knight and Stavvy have successfully completed MISMO Remote Online Notarization (RON) certification. The RON certification program, announced last April, lets a notary notarize a document without the need to be in the signer’s physical presence via audio-visual technology.
Blend Labs, Inc., has announced the confidential submission of Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Form S-1 is the initial registration document required by the SEC before a company can list its shares on a national stock exchange; Blend’s submitting of the form signals its intention to hold an initial public offering of its common stock. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. The initial public offering is expected to commence after the SEC completes its review process, subject to market and other conditions.
