GSEs

The average per-loan profit margin remains incredibly strong, but the share of senior executives expecting it to fall has risen markedly.

Even government-sponsored enterprise loans, which have seen forbearance rates drop for 24 weeks in a row, saw a slight uptick.

The price increase illustrates the extent to which federal rescue programs and a supply-demand imbalance have been counterweights to economic pressures from the pandemic.

The Structured Finance Association fears Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin may release the government-sponsored enterprises from conservatorship ahead of the change in administration, and that doing so could disrupt the mortgage-backed securities market.

To truly manage risk, banks must invest in more sophisticated modeling, reporting and analytics to track market movements and ultimately maximize profitability, Vice Capital Markets’ Christopher Bennett says.

The move follows a report last year that the government-sponsored enterprise was looking into working with the provider of artificial intelligence-driven credit-risk models.

The Trump administration has moved forward on a plan to privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but Joe Biden appointees could take steps to slow or stop their release from conservatorship.

The new capital framework for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is a prelude to letting the mortgage giants potentially retain all their earnings. But efforts to privatize the companies could face pushback from the Biden administration.

The 2021 cap is still pretty high, historically speaking, but it’s down from the cap the Federal Housing Finance Agency put in place for a five-quarter period last year.

Rates could be 50 basis points steeper than the MBA’s current projections, which anticipate the 30-year mortgage will average 3.3% next year, up from nearly 3% this year.