Based on what Freddie's Layton said, one might think that going forward, the GSEs might barely break even. Maybe that’s why the GSEs – and not necessarily Mel Watt – want to hike their guaranty fees…
Did someone in the mortgage industry actually ask one of the GSEs recently to increase the 25 basis point servicing fee that it pays to residential servicers?
The Senate’s GSE reform proposal in its current form would create an extremely high risk for Freddie Mac’s core policy functions during the bill’s proposed five-year wind down of the company, Freddie’s chief executive warned. In a confidential memo to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt that was leaked to the media, Freddie CEO Donald Layton said that the housing finance reform legislation by Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, fails to state clearly that the GSEs’ core policy function must be maintained and such an omission would create potentially crippling uncertainty among staffers during the transition.
A new trade group is showing true love for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Also, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is giving lenders some breathing room on the Qualified Mortgage/Ability-to-Repay rule.
“The examiner-in-charge apparently thought that the owner was lying, and the CFPB now wants to question him under oath,” principal Joe Garrett writes in a note to his clients.
At one shop based in the Midwest there’s unconfirmed talk of loan officers who haven’t been paid for months, unpaid leases and top executives who were on vacation as volumes collapsed.
The servicing rules implemented by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at the beginning of this year appear to have resulted in improvements to customer service along with increased costs for servicers, according to industry analysts. “Most servicers have adapted their operations to make the customer experience a key focus of their servicing operations,” according to analysts at Standard & Poor’s. When reviewing servicers, S&P said...
The best bet for lenders that want to reward and retain their top mortgage producers while remaining on the right side of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s loan-originator compensation restrictions is to keep any compensation plan simple and easy to follow, experts warned during an Inside Mortgage Finance webinar this week. Some four months after the LO compensation rule took effect, most in the industry are aware of the rule’s general prohibition – no compensation based on loan terms – but lenders remain full of questions in determining how they can and cannot compensate their loan officers and brokers, as well as whom exactly in their employ falls within the new CFPB rule, according to Richard Andreano, practice leader at Ballard Spahr’s mortgage banking group. Andreano noted...
As for details, a spokesman for the company said Ellie isn’t talking about the topic at this time. In an email exchange with IMFnews, mortgage technology consultant Tony Garritano of Progress in Lending called the whole episode “very bizarre”…
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