Milbank has received a one-year, $3 million contract to provide legal services related to ending the conservatorships of the GSEs.

The nonbank mortgage sector appeared to be whistling by the graveyard earlier this week because of liquidity concerns sparked by the pandemic. For now, crisis has been averted but the situation is fluid.

The FHFA director expects that close to one million GSE borrowers will inquire about forbearance during April, and two million by June.

The bill asks servicers of agency loans to offer forbearance to borrowers experiencing “hardship” but doesn’t say how to assess the impact.

As the economic crisis precipitated by the coronavirus heats up, residential lenders have tightened their underwriting guidelines.

The mortgage market remained unsettled as the coronavirus damaged the U.S. economy and lenders weighed their options. The Fed came to the rescue with liquidity measures but fears regarding nonbanks persist.

The servicing acquisition market often gets whipsawed by falling interest rates. But it now has a bigger enemy: financial uncertainty.

To reduce contact between appraisers and homeowners, the government-sponsored enterprises will accept an exterior-only inspection or a desktop appraisal. Income verification requirements have also been eased.

It was mortgage market Armageddon this week, courtesy of the corona-virus. Lenders were knee-deep in refis but fears mounted regarding an expected spike in delinquencies and about nonbank liquidity. The feds issued a foreclosure moratorium on government and GSE loans.

The Department of Justice’s antitrust investigation into FICO appears to be related to an ongoing civil lawsuit between the company and TransUnion regarding underpaid royalties.