At the direction of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are reformulating their Social Index to make it more attractive to investors while still protecting the privacy of borrowers.

The government-sponsored enterprise said it has identified a significant number of fraudulent appraisals tied to mortgages originated between 2021 and 2023.

New attributes will give investors a better understanding of the status and pace of MBS prepayments.

Fannie Mae has identified a significant number of appraisals conducted by unlicensed appraisers using stolen identities.

By automating its biennial review system, the FHLBank regulator has dramatically reduced the number of member institutions that are inadvertently omitted from community support reporting.

The dollar volume of mortgages going to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac declined by 47.3% compared with 2022.

"What Fannie and Freddie and the FHFA should be doing is trying to convince Congress it’s time to get them out of conservatorship," said James Lockhart, the former director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

All lender types, except HFAs and credit unions, saw GSE deliveries decline in the fourth quarter. For HFAs, that meant a spike in market share, albeit from a low starting point. (Includes two data tables.)

The former FHFA director says Congress will never act, but that the GSEs should create subsidiaries, then complete an initial public offering to get out of government control.

Small depositories warn changes at the FHLBs could increase members’ costs and reduce access to FHLB funding. Worse, these changes could take place without formal rulemaking.