Mortgage lenders that sell loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw a modest increase in the volume of loans they repurchased from the GSEs during the second quarter of 2017, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis of disclosure reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. During the second quarter, lenders repurchased or made indemnifications on $244.44 million of single-family loans pooled in Fannie and Freddie mortgage-backed securities. That was up 2.5 percent from the first three months of the year. On a year-to-date basis, seller buybacks totaled $483.01 million, a 14.5 percent drop from the first six months of 2016.
In a research note published Friday, Cowen & Co. notes the letter is an indication these groups believe allowing the GSEs to retain capital will prolong the conservatorships.
Subservicing contracts topped $1.97 trillion at June 30, a 4.3 percent gain from March and a 28.2 percent jump over the past year, according to an exclusive Inside Mortgage Finance survey. Overall, roughly 19.9 percent of all residential loans are now being processed by these “outsourcing” vendors, who do not own the underlying strip of receivables and instead receive a portion of the servicing fee for doing all the grunt work. The subservicing sector continues...[Includes one data table]
Much of the historical discussion about the mortgage industry going fully digital and adopting e-mortgages has revolved around cost savings, greater efficiencies, validating compliance and other benefits. But at the end of the day, the biggest reason is that lenders’ customer base is increasingly focused on digital technology, and lenders need to go where the borrowers are. “That’s where the consumers are, right? Finally, everybody’s going online to shop for most of their products, and mortgages are starting to happen the same way,” said Tim Anderson, director of eServices for DocMagic, during a webinar last week sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance. “They’re going out there looking for rates and pricing, they’re looking for real estate. If you want to capture that marketplace, you meet them out there in cyberspace.” Scott Stephen, president of the online division of Guaranteed Rate, noted...
Although flood insurance is required for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in designated flood areas, the recent hurricane activity in Houston and Florida has revealed that a number of borrowers didn’t have the coverage they were supposed to have. But getting to the root of the disconnect is complicated. Both government-sponsored enterprises said that it’s up to servicers to evaluate whether loans are in compliance with flood insurance requirements. But Fannie and Freddie said they also have their own systems in place to help ensure compliance. “Servicers are required...
The signors add: “We … believe the debate over recapitalizing a broken system distracts from the critical structural issues that Congress must address to ensure that the federally supported secondary market serves key, bipartisan objectives.”
RSS