Among a host of best practices and other tips lenders should consider for complying with the CFPB’s new Home Mortgage Disclosure Act rule is coordinated institutional planning, according to Ellen Costa, vice president of strategy and business capability development at Wells Fargo Home Lending. Speaking to attendees at the recent regulatory compliance conference sponsored by the American Bankers Association, Costa said, “All of the CFPB's regulatory changes – HMDA in particular – mean significant change management within your institution. It is a best practice to be very agile and proactive about coordinating a project plan that includes a strategy upfront, really understanding what the regulations are driving at.” A solid plan developed ahead of time and properly executed will allow a clear ...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week detailed its efforts to make sure Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac policies and practices are consistent enough to keep prepayments speeds on their to-be-announced securities essentially the same. Prepay speeds for the two government-sponsored enterprises have moved significantly closer as more of their products and program requirements have been standardized, the FHFA said in an update on its single security initiative. Keeping them that way is seen as critical to the success of the program, in which Fannie and Freddie TBA MBS will be fully fungible – and can even be combined in so-called second-tier securitizations. Some industry interests have urged...
Recently, rumors were making the rounds in Washington that Fannie and Freddie might be pondering an increase in their net worth minimums for seller/servicers...
Mortgage lenders delivered a hefty $218.29 billion of single-family mortgages into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities during the second quarter of 2016, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of MBS disclosures made by the two government-sponsored enterprises. That was an increase of $45.32 billion over the first quarter, and 30.2 percent of the gain came from California, where total GSE loan sales jumped ... [Includes two data charts]
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both saw substantial increases in single-family volume during the second quarter, aided in part by nonbank sellers scouring for refinance business. But Fannie enjoyed bigger gains, while Freddie’s share of the two-horse GSE market slipped to 39.5 percent. Freddie’s share has hovered above 40 percent for the past two years, and it was 40.2 percent for the first six months of the year, but the GSE has to prop up its share by charging lower guarantee fees and through other means. In 2016, Freddie has been getting a smaller share of some sellers’ business than it got in the first half of last year. [includes two data charts]
Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, and Mark Warner, D-VA, wrote Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt urging him to avoid taking steps that would lead to the GSEs’ release from conservatorship without comprehensive reform. The letter, sent on July 7, argued that doing so would perpetuate the pre-crisis practice of pubic losses and private gains. Senator Mike Crapo, R-ID, Heidi Heitkamp, D-ND, Dean Heller R-NV, and Jon Tester, D-MT, also coauthored the letter. They agree that an overall change to the existing structure needs to take place, but warned that it should only come through housing finance reform legislation and not any unilateral action by the administration.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency released an updated timeline, along with more technical details, on its single-security and common securitization platform late this week. It plans to announce the intended launch date for the single security later this year. This will give stakeholders at least 12 months' advance notice to prepare for implementation. While the project seems to be on track, the FHFA noted that some of the interim milestones could change due to the complicated undertaking. “Many of the milestones pertain to three types of system testing that the enterprises and Common Securitization Solutions must complete before implementation of each release,” according to the FHFA.