Fannie Mae and IBM are working together on at least one big technology project: a new data center. But is the relationship about to go even further? Meanwhile, MBS issuance stayed hot in April.

FHFA issues progress report on the "common securitization platform" but no CEO is in place yet. Meanwhile, Ally is out of MSRs totally.

Freddie Mac is phasing out a software package that helps with the servicing of delinquent loans, a move that could help private sector technology vendors.

Fannie Mae is moving closer to hiring IBM as a technology vendor to handle certain data processing chores for the GSE, according to two former Fannie officials. However, as Inside The GSEs went to press, details about what exactly IBM might do for the secondary market giant was unclear.“It’s a huge contract, involving many employees and facilities,” said one source. “It’s broad-based.” But it’s also unclear whether the contract has anything to do with the single MBS platform, a project being overseen by Fannie’s regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Freddie Mac is getting the word out early that it is phasing out its software for managing delinquent home loans with plans to discontinue the service altogether next year. The company has already stopped registering new customers for EarlyIndicator, Freddie’s Windows-based program used to predict loan delinquency. "To provide users with time to transition, we are letting them know we are retiring EarlyIndicator one year in advance,” Freddie said in its announcement earlier this month.

Almost one in five mortgage lenders in the country is still actively considering switching to a new loan origination platform, driven largely by the need to keep up with increasing regulation and, to a lesser extent, the desire for new features to gain or keep a competitive edge in the marketplace. According to the seventh annual compliance survey by QuestSoft, a provider of mortgage compliance software based in Laguna Hills, CA, 18.6 percent of lenders are reevaluating their current LOS platform, up from 0.1 percent in last year’s survey. Historically, the percentage of lenders considering an LOS change hovered...

Fannie Mae is making it easier for small and medium-sized lenders to deliver electronic mortgages to the government-sponsored enterprise. “Currently, lenders are required to obtain a variance to their master agreement in order to deliver electronic mortgage loans (eMortgages) to Fannie Mae,” the GSE said in a recent selling guide announcement. “Fannie Mae would like to expand...

Tim Duncan, a past chief information officer for the CFPB, aims to protect third-party lenders from regulatory snafus with his new venture.

Officials at Hope LoanPort are touting the capabilities of their web-based portal to help mortgage servicers get into full compliance with the servicing rules put out in February by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as well as help loan modifications proceed without interruption. When the CFPB’s mortgage servicing rules kick in Jan. 10, 2014, lenders will be required to “maintain policies and procedures that are reasonably designed to achieve the objectives of facilitating transfer of ...

Mortgage companies are starting to use predictive modeling and better data and analytics to target homeowners who are moving with the right message at the right time in the move cycle. With the use of direct mail, companies can reach movers before they purchase a new mortgage, the thinking goes. Data and analytics company Target Data, a privately held firm based in Chicago, uses proprietary technology to aggregate housing data (more than 70 million records a week), which it uses to predict if ...