Agree with everything you’re saying here, UR, but I wanted to add that there WERE banks that disclosed to borrowers within their loan docs (usually with ARM products) that they kept 100% of these loans within their portfolios.
These were typically the former “giant thrifts,” (the Downey and World Savings and now Chase’s of the world [who swallowed up WAMU who swallowed up GW]). All these notes would still be presumably kept somewhere “in house.”
The BIG QUESTION here is, “How many of these loans are actually active (and still performing) today??” Mine is, and I’m confident my bank could find my note if they had to, in a pinch :=).
These existing “direct” loans may now amount to a “drop in the bucket” compared to all that has “changed hands” through “MERS,” some no doubt multiple times :=(.
