HR 2121 Up For Vote; Freddie's New Security, Fannie's New Board Member
My memory's not as sharp as it used to be. Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports nearly 20% of Americans 65 or older are currently working, the highest level since the 1960s. Yes, not everyone sits on their porch during "retirement". Congrats to Mike Heid, the ex-president of Wells Fargo Mortgage who is the newest member of Fannie Mae's board of directors. He'll be an asset to Fannie, but what's the comp like? Depending on committee participation & meeting certain goals, Mr. Heid will probably earn about $180k (page 170 starts comp information).
In very current news, H.R. 2121 is coming up for an important vote - today! Our industry's Mortgage Action Alliance spread the word in in support of H.R. 2121, a bill that would provide transitional licensing authority to originate mortgages for individuals who move from a federally-insured institution to a non-bank lender or from one state to another while they work to complete the SAFE Act's licensing and testing requirements. H.R. 2121 has been scheduled to receive a House floor vote this afternoon, Monday, May 23rd. "H.R. 2121 is an important bill for the mortgage industry. The 120 days of transitional authority to originate would be available to MLOs who have been registered for at least 12 months and have a clean history as an originator (e.g., no license denials, revocations or suspensions, no cease and desist orders, and no felonies that preclude licensing)." Please write your member NOW and urge them to vote in favor this important piece of legislation.
Fannie & Freddie, conforming conventional news
We still have 5 ½ months until the election - just think of all the "fun" ahead. Interestingly enough, housing has hardly been mentioned by the candidates. Why not? First of all, it is not in dire straits. In fact, many believe that, in general, housing is in the best shape its been in for several years.
But Bloomberg's Felice Maranz interviewed Fannie Mae CEO Timothy Mayopoulos, and he had several observations. Eight years after financial crisis, with its roots in housing, there is still no "significant" discussion about reform. Regarding FNMA's capital cushion, he said that it's "not sustainable" to run $3 trillion balance-sheet institution with $1.2 billion of capital, and that it is ironic that capital standards of other financial institutions are going up while FNMA's is going down - that's unsustainable. Mr. Mayopoulos noted that whether or the not the GSEs should continue to be publicly traded is a decision for policy-makers.
Effective June 13 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will update the Uniform Collateral Data Portal (UCDP) to rename the "Date of Appraisal" field in the Appraisal section of the Submission Summary Report (SSR), and correct the XML mapping for two comment fields on Form 1025. Reference the Release Notes on the UCDP page for details.
Starting last week Collateral Underwriter Version 3.2 will leverage the UCDP appraisal-sharing functionality to provide aggregators access to their correspondent shared appraisals in CU. Aggregators and correspondents can complete the setup today in UCDP. For more information, review the CU V3.2 Release Notes. Fannie Mae offers a variety of live and recorded training opportunities to help use CU effectively and efficiently. Additional live webinar dates have been added, including a refresher course on the CU Score and Messages. Attend one or more sessions to learn more about CU.
In Fannie Mae Servicer news, The Inquiry Response Tool (IRT) vendor portal will be enhanced on May 23, 2016. Enhancements include: Increased character limits from 500 to 1000, Update to the Bulk Upload Process and Email notification of status changes. All enhancements are included in the updated IRT Submitter User Manual. To help users track the status of their inquiries related to claims processing, all IRT users will start receiving email notifications from the tool when their inquiries are updated. All users will be opted in to this new feature. If users decide not to receive the email notifications or want to send the notifications to a different email address, they will need to opt out using the instructions here.
SoFi, announced that its wholly owned subsidiary SoFi Lending Corp. has been approved as a seller and servicer with Fannie Mae. "SoFi and Fannie Mae are both highly committed to promoting homeownership, and this new designation will help the company in its mission to help financially responsible consumers buy the home they want. Fannie Mae's commitment to technological innovation in mortgages complements the strong technology investment SoFi has made to improve transparency and efficiency in the mortgage process by marrying the convenience of an online application process with exceptional live, personal support.
The M&T FHA Streamline product pages have been updated to correct the Non-Credit Qualifying mortgage payment history requirements are as follows: "Non-Credit Qualifying: ALL mortgages on the subject property must be 0x30 for the most recent six months prior to case number assignment and no more than 1x30 for months 7-12." Also, Agency Underwriting Eligibility Standards, effective with all loan applications dated 05/18/16, M&T will adhere to the following updates to the Agency Underwriting Eligibility Standards (UES). (The Agency UES serves all Fannie and Freddie registered loans, but does NOT include M&T Treasury product). The updated guide will be posted to the MEME and Empower Info Centers. A comparison document highlighting the old policy versus the new policy is also being provided.
Wells Fargo's will no longer require upfront authorization of eSign third-party service providers. If you have been approved for eSign, you can now select vendors of your choice and represent and warrant their compliance with the signature, presentation, delivery, Loan file documentation and retention requirements of all applicable federal and state laws and regulations on their behalf. Wells is removing its policy overlay for conventional Conforming Loans when the primary residence is converting to a second home or investment property and will follow Fannie or Freddie requirements. A reminder was issued as to the Rels Valuation 'Share with Investor' function retiring on May 20th. In addition, its Seller Guide has been updated regarding FHA and VA High Balance Loans.
Congratulations to Central Mortgage Company (CMC). The company was recognized recently by Fannie Mae as a five STAR designated mortgage servicer in Fannie Mae's Servicer Total Achievement and Rewards (STAR) program in 2015. This designation is the result of CMC having one of the highest overall scores amongst the mortgage service companies in the program. Fannie Mae's STAR program evaluates a select group of mortgage servicers nationwide, grading them on performance, operational capabilities and effectiveness. Servicers are graded by a ranking of zero to five stars, with five-star designation being the highest recognition.
Recently Freddie Mac completed an inaugural Multifamily Structured Credit Risk (SCR) transaction, a $52 million offering transferring the first-loss credit risk of a specified pool of multifamily mortgages to private capital markets credit investors. The SCR notes (pronounced SCORE notes) series 2016-MDN1, Class B, is linked to the credit and principal payment risk of a reference pool of multifamily mortgage loans backing state and local housing finance agency tax-exempt bonds for which Freddie Mac provides credit enhancement. The notes are unsecured and unguaranteed corporate bonds that build on Freddie's multifamily securities offerings and single-family STACR debt notes, and are meant to reduce taxpayers' exposure to mortgage default risk. Wells Fargo was the sole structuring agent, lead manager, and book runner while Systima Capital Management is the sole initial investor. What is paid out in the way of periodic principal and ultimate principal is determined by the performance of the reference pool consisting of more than 50 multifamily mortgage loans originated between 2007 and 2015 with an approximate unpaid principal balance of $1.04 billion.
Yes, Fannie & Freddie dominate the residential secondary markets, but they don't determine where the bond market goes. Bond prices, and thus rates, are pretty much in the same range they've been in most of 2016, despite the odds of a short-term rate increase by the Federal Open Market Committee during its June meeting going up. On Friday the bond market was pretty much unchanged despite a better-than-expected Existing Home Sales report for April and a rally in global equities.
For news this week, it is kind of an average amount of scheduled releases. Zip today. Tomorrow we'll see April's New Home Sales and a $26 billion 2-year Treasury auction. Wednesday brings us the usual MBA Mortgage Index but also the March FHFA Housing Price Index, some trade balance numbers, and a $34 billion 5-year Note auction. Thursday we have Initial Jobless Claims, April Durable Goods Orders, April Pending Home Sales, and a $28 billion 7-year Treasury auction. Friday are the second estimates of Q1 GDP and GDP Deflator, and May Michigan Sentiment.
Don't look for much change to rate sheets today. We ended last week with the 10-year's yield at 1.85% and this morning it is hovering around 1.83% with agency MBS prices slightly better.
Jobs and Announcements
HomeStreet Bank is seeking an experienced Single Family Asset Assistant Manager with strong management skills and experience in Single Family Construction and Renovations loans. "We highly value candidates with experience working with borrowers and vendors to ensure smooth draw disbursements. Candidates should have 5+ years of supervisory experience with a variety of loan programs including FHA 203(k), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or alternate experience is construction or real estate lending. The job is located in the heart of downtown Seattle, WA. HomeStreet Bank is one of the largest community banks in the Pacific Northwest, with mortgage operations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, California and Hawaii. Founded in 1921, HomeStreet Bank offers a competitive compensation and benefits package which includes comprehensive health care coverage and an employee matching 401(k) plan. Please use this link to apply online. For confidential questions contact Cathy Nelson, VP Recruiting Manager. HomeStreet Bank is an EO/AA Employer including Vets and Disabled.
A major nationwide banking institution in the greater New York Metro area is seeking to hire an experienced and technically savvy Business Analyst motivated by the challenges of solving problems in the mortgage origination process. The Company is launching a new implementation of the Ellie Mae Encompass LOS to support a redesigned business process aimed at improving customer experience at the Point of Sale and productivity in the back office. The ideal candidate will have proven experience eliciting and documenting requirements, including regulatory compliance, and working with operations managers to bring innovative ideas into fruition. Having a solid grasp on business process modeling tools and techniques is a key skill set for this role. Being a proactive communicator and collaborator with sales and fulfillment teams, internal developers, project managers, and QA teammates, is central to the mission, as is the ability to maintain effective relationships with key 3rd party service providers. Interested candidates should send their resume to me.
Brokers/Correspondents should know that BANC HOME LOANS TPO Division has added a new feature to its FHA STREAMLINE guidelines: management has eliminated the need for a minimum FICO SCORE requirement for this product. The FHA Streamline Non-credit Qualifying product for Banc Home Loans now accepts a Tri-Merge "Mortgage Only" Credit Report with NO FICO. Banc Home Loans continues to find more ways to say YES! If you would like more information, please reach out to your Banc Home Loans Account Executive or Thomas McGoldrick, Area Sales Manager.
Upcoming events & training?
One of the most frequently-quoted sources in real estate, mortgage and foreclosure trends, Rick Sharga will be discussing the US housing market trend on May 25th at 1PM EDT, 10AM PDT. As part of the Sierra Pacific Mortgage's educational Market Power Series, Sharga will be sharing his thoughts on where the nation is in the housing recovery process. Register for this free one-hour webinar here.
May 24th Fannie Mae is hosting a webinar to engage industry participants in the development of the revised Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA). This is an opportunity for participants to view and provide feedback on the latest URLA redesign examples while learning about the status of the URLA project and next steps for the remainder of the year.
FHA representatives from the Santa Ana Homeownership Center will conduct a one-day, live, instructor-led seminar on May 25 with the primary focus on the Single Family Housing Policy Handbook 4000.1 and recent updates. Direct Endorsement underwriters, loan processors, and other seasoned mortgage lending professionals will find this training highly beneficial - in fact the FHA has several upcoming events worth a gander.
In light of increased and more sophisticated cyber threats, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has developed an assessment tool to help companies understand, mitigate and manage potential cyber threats. Join MBA and leadingcybersecurity experts for an interactive conversation on how to successfully implement and use the tool for your unique business needs. Register now for FFIEC Cybersecurity Assessment Tool Deep-Dive Workshop September 27 in Los Angeles.