Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have taken different positions on how to deal with new seller/servicers that haven’t been approved for very long. While Fannie has set purchase limits on how much production newly approved seller/servicers can sell to the GSE, Freddie Mac has shied away from such caps. A spokesman for Freddie told Inside The GSEs that it treats all its customers equally. “We don’t have a limit on new customers,” he clarified. Lenders must meet the net worth minimum, which is roughly $2.5 million. Fannie Mae, on the other hand, is tying loan sale volume to net worth. The lower a lender’s net worth, the less it can sell to Fannie. According to a recent message posted to Fannie’s website by executive vice president and chief risk officer John Nichols, Fannie placed limits on new customers –primarily nonbanks – because the company saw what it called a “significant shift in the composition of our customer base and the emergence of many new originating institutions with whom we have done little or no business.”
New rules set to take effect next month that would permit eligible underwater homeowners holding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages to leave behind the home and the remaining loan debt are designed to make the best out of a bad situation, say the GSEs. Starting March 1, GSE servicers will have expanded authority to approve a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure to non-delinquent Fannie or Freddie borrowers who can no longer stay in the home and can demonstrate a “hardship.”Although deed-in-lieu servicing guidelines were issued by Fannie and Freddie in November, a published report this week gave it renewed attention and speculation that the GSEs were letting borrowers off too easily.
Final rules establishing national mortgage servicing standards may reduce the incentives for states to adopt their own varied, unique versions, thus reducing the patchwork of state mortgage servicing laws. At the same time, however, the final rules are a floor and states – and the government-sponsored enterprises – may adopt more stringent consumer protections, cautioned attorneys with SNR Denton. An analysis by the Washington, DC, law firm said the final rule issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ...
Underwater homeowners who have remained current on their payments will be able to relinquish their houses and cancel their debt under the terms of a new GSE policy change to take effect in March.
The recent court ruling which called into question the legitimacy of certain recess appointments – including that of CFPB director Richard Cordray – also means the agency may not have any regulatory oversight over nonbanks.
Although Fannie Mae has set purchase limits on how much production newly approved seller/servicers can sell to the GSE, Freddie Mac has shied away from such caps.
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