An industry advisory group formed to provide input on the development of the common securitization platform and single security for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to-be-announced MBS held its second meeting in December and addressed a wide range of industry concerns. A letter sent to the group by the Housing Policy Council raised questions about the timing of issuance of the single security, policy alignment between the two government-sponsored enterprises and the opportunities for public input and participation. The advisory group noted...
Nonbank lenders accounted for nearly half (48.7 percent) of the single-family mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the fourth quarter of 2015, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis of mortgage-backed securities disclosures. The nonbank share of new GSE business has been on a steady march higher over the past few years as the top tier of depository institutions has repositioned their mortgage strategies and more lenders have participated directly in the securitization process. Back in 2013, nonbanks accounted for just 31.0 percent of new Fannie/Freddie business. The momentum did slow somewhat in 2015, however. After boosting their aggregate share by 12.9 percentage points to 43.9 percent in 2014, the nonbank...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Office of the Inspector General determined that the agency failed to properly oversee the GSEs’ single-family mortgage underwriting standards and variances. As a result, the OIG has reopened its recommendation from a previous audit report until the FHFA proves it has fully implemented the proper oversight. …
The flow of new mortgages delivered to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac declined by 19.9 percent from the third to the fourth quarter of 2015, and a larger share of them came from third-party originators, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of mortgage-backed securities data. The two government-sponsored enterprises securitized $179.01 billion of single-family mortgages during the fourth quarter of last year. Although the biggest factor ... [Includes two data charts]
While Fannie Mae recently said it would announce details this year about its plan to let lenders pay a risk fee as an alternative to repurchase for some defective loans, Freddie Mac said it’s “business as usual” and the GSE doesn’t plan to make lenders pay a fee for retaining some loans with defects. “We did look at charging a fee, but we believe we have an alternative of recourses, which means the lenders are not paying any fee up front, and if the loan performs there is no repurchase,” Christopher Mock, Freddie’s vice president of quality control, told Inside The GSEs. He said this allows the lender and the GSE to walk together down the performance trail of the loan.
Since issuing a proposed rule on duty-to-serve and opening it up to comments several weeks ago, the Federal Housing Finance Agency has received a handful of comments so far, including one from the Wisconsin Housing Alliance stating that the FHFA has “shirked their duties” by ignoring the needs of manufactured housing residents. The trade group, representing factory-built housing interests, noted that there is a gap in access to credit for buyers of used manufactured homes and added that local and national lenders have exited the market in droves thanks to increased regulation. The FHFA tackled duty-to-serve rulemaking in December, several years after being mandated by the Housing and...
Fannie Mae plans to move its Dallas headquarters to nearby Plano, TX, and consolidate three area offices into one new location by sometime in 2018, thanks to an improvement in loan quality resulting in the need for less staff. The Dallas-based offices are focused on mortgage servicing, working with borrowers if they’re behind on their mortgages and managing foreclosed properties. But with foreclosures lessening, plans include downsizing office space from about 450,000 square feet to an approximately 300,000-square-foot office. “It’s important to have our teams in one place to do that work together,” said a GSE spokesman who confirmed the move.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency issued a final rule last week to make the process a bit clearer when it comes to ending relationships with fraudulent businesses and individuals. The Suspended Counterparty Program final rule has been in the making for a few years and parts of the interim rule, published in October 2013, have been revised. The final rule, which goes into effect Jan. 22, addresses comments made by Fannie Mae and 11 Federal Home Loan Banks. The program was put in place to help mitigate risk to Fannie, Freddie Mac and the FHLBs. One of the changes made in the final rule is that it allows more time for Fannie and Freddie to...
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