At DocMagic, we are constantly adding new features and enhancements in an effort to make our software products better.  Today we are pleased to announce the addition of a "Bona Fide" discount point flag across our software product line. Read on to see what this means for you and your high-cost calculations.

On February 9, 2006, the U.S. Treasury Department had its first sale of 30-year bonds, resurrecting a debt security that had been discontinued in February 2002. We'll leave it to the pundits to tell us what this means for investors, the deficit and the economy in general. For those of us who deal with predatory lending matters, the reintroduction of the 30-year bond will have an impact on high cost calculations beginning March 1, 2006.

In a recently published release, the California Department of Corporations has concluded that under current law (specifically the decision in Wolski v. Fremont Investment & Loan (2004) 127 Cal. App. 4th 347), yield spread premiums are not part of points and fees under California's Covered Loan Law. We believe this is the first written statement by a California governmental agency regarding whether or not yield spread premiums are included as points and fees under California's Covered Loan Law.

To view a copy of the release, click here.

This month DSI posts loan programs of Bear Stearns, EMC Mortgage Corporation, and Morgan Stanley on its Compliance page. Find out the description of each investor's loan programs, which promissory notes, prepayment riders and addenda are used, and what the rate caps and interest-only periods are for variable rate loans. Visit our Compliance page next month to see other investors' loan programs.

Customer Service Is Always # 1

Currently, the following verbiage appears above the borrowers' signature in Maryland's first-lien notes:

THIS LOAN TRANSACTION IS GOVERNED BY TITLE 12, SUBTITLE 10 OF THE COMMERCIAL LAW ARTICLE OF THE ANNOTATED CODE OF MARYLAND.

Beginning March 15, 2006, the above verbiage will appear on all second-lien notes where the loan is made for a personal, household or family purpose and secured by owner-occupied real property. The Legal/Compliance Department at Document Systems, Inc. has made this decision based on the fact that most knowledgeable lenders making loans in Maryland elect to originate loans under Subtitle 10 (the Closed End Credit Provisions) instead of the more restrictive Maryland Secondary Mortgage Loan Law, MD COML §§ 12-401 et seq.

This month Document Systems, Inc. ("DSI") added new enhancements to DocMagic that will enable the user to add more details if "manufactured housing," "manufactured housing/PUD," or "cooperative" is selected as the property type under the Property tab within DocMagic.

Have you ever wondered why multiple computers in your office can run DocMagic but you do not have the ability to see each other's data? Well this month's Tech Tip covers just that. The default installation for DocMagic for Windows is stored locally on your hard drive. Once DocMagic has been installed, you cannot share any data amongst other DocMagic for Windows users on other machines. This may result in significant time loss across all users when entering brokers, alternate lenders, service providers, loan reps, etc., into the systems database and can be otherwise avoided if DocMagic is installed instead on a shared network drive.

In order to keep DocMagic software users better apprised of document changes and additions as they occur, DSI posts listings of all newly created and revised documents. Here is the list of forms created or modified in January, 2006.