Error on Regions Financial at NMN Underscores Current Market Conditions

A National Mortgage News story I had blogged about earlier today said that Regions Financial Corp. “is exiting the residential mortgage sector.” Turns out National Mortgage News was duped by an unnamed source that had their story very wrong.

Here’s the retraction, posted here for HW readers:

Regions Financial Corp., Birmingham, Ala., said Monday afternoon that it is not exiting the residential mortgage sector and will actually expand its presence in the home finance market. MortgageWire, quoting a source inside the company, reported earlier on Monday that Regions would drop the business line. The source, who was not identified, could not be reached for further comment. We regret the error.

For my part, I’ve actually taken to not reporting on the rumors I hear each and every day unless another media outlet reports on it, out of concern for the longevity of this blog. The Mortgage Lender Implode-o-Meter, for example, is facing a well-publicized libel lawsuit for erroneously adding a company to its “imploded” list — which in some ways isn’t much different from the mistake made today by National Mortgage News.

The difference, of course, is that NMN is a traditional news outlet and isn’t focused solely on cataloguing the demise of lenders; and Regions Financial is actually a bona fide bank, which in some ways gives the NMN mistake a greater sense of gravitas.

But the mistake — reporting that a lender was exiting the business when it wasn’t — is essentially identical. All of which goes to underscore how difficult reporting on current market conditions can be. Even for the paid professionals.