SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Nonbank mortgage lender LoanDepot cited "market conditions" for postponing an initial public offering of as much as $540 million of stock. "It begs the question of whether this a rewind to the (2008 subprime mortgage) precrisis period," says finance professor

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Median home prices have surged past the U.S. record set in 2006 at the peak of the real estate bubble, but don’t expect a repeat of the Great Recession. Instead, a mortgage risk expert at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business expects an eventual market slowdown driven by a mixture of negative and positive factors.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Newly confirmed U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch has a strong record for going after mortgage fraud, says Cliff Rossi, professor of the practice at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. He anticipates that Lynch will reinforce predecessor Eric Holder’s actions to hold lenders accountable for their role in the 2008 financial crisis.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Borrowers live or die by their FICO scores — numbers that offer a snapshot of how reliable they've been in paying back their debts. But some 53 million Americans don't have such scores because their credit history is thin or nonexistent.

Bank executives sometimes viewed Smith professor Cliff Rossi as a killjoy during the buildup to the 2008 global economic meltdown. As chief risk officer at several of the largest U.S. financial institutions, Rossi faced the task of raising unwelcome concerns when banks started setting aside traditional safeguards and packaging subprime loans. “I had a front row seat at the party and the funeral,” says Rossi, who spent time with Citigroup, Washington Mutual, Countrywide Bank, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Smith School Professor Cliff Rossi on Thursday outlined measures to a congressional subcommittee to make the Federal Housing Administration a better risk manager to rehabilitate its “extremely weak” Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund.

SMITH BRAIN TRSUT -- Smith Executive-in Residence and Professor of the Practice Cliff Rossi has raised concerns as mortgage underwriting giant Freddie Mac recruits traders from the likes of Citi, Bank of America and Credit Suisse to place new housing wagers.

Radian Group Inc., has appointed Smith finance professor Cliff Rossi as senior vice president and chief economist. In this position, Rossi will be responsible for research, forecasts, quantitative analysis and financial modeling of mortgage insurance portfolio and the housing and mortgage markets of one of the nation's largest private mortgage insurers.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- President Obama’s proposed fee on big banks would hurt homebuyers and fail to control risk-taking by those firms with more than $50 billion in assets, says Clifford Rossi, professor of the practice at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. The proposal, slated for inclusion in tonight’s State of the Union address, would affect about 100 financial institutions.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST -- Since 2008 the United States has had a zombie mortgage-financing system, former bank executive Cliff Rossi writes today in a guest column for The Hill.