VA Servicer Reminders. The new maximum allowable foreclosure timeframes published in the Federal Register on Dec. 4, 2015, will be effective for all loan terminations completed on or after Jan. 3, 2016. In addition, the new Net Value percentage (15.95 percent) took effect on Dec. 23, 2015. All Notices of Value issued on or after Dec. 23, must be calculated using the new percentage. Meanwhile, pre-approval requests to deviate from a regulation must be submitted through VALERI (VA Loan Electronic Reporting Interface), the agency’s loan administration system. VA does not grant pre-approval on claim expenses or for additional time to foreclose. These items must be appealed ...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will try to transfer the credit risk on 90 percent of their mainstream mortgage business in 2016 under new marching orders from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, but next year’s activity may end up being less than the 2015 total. The FHFA in the past has set credit-risk transfer goals based on specific dollar amounts. But next year’s target is to sell some of the credit risk on nearly all of the fixed-rate mortgages the two government-sponsored enterprises buy that have loan terms exceeding 20 years and loan-to-value ratios over 60 percent. Activity in the dwindling Home Affordable Refinance Program will be excluded. In the first 11 months of 2015, the two GSEs securitized...
The U.S. residential MBS sector will continue its slow, steady recovery in 2016 amid a host of challenges, showing further improvement in housing fundamentals, credit quality and mortgage performance, according to analysts. The challenges to MBS structured financing boil down to the following: tapering of Federal Reserve investment in MBS, MBS supply and demand, interest rates and prepayment risk. Fitch Ratings notes...