Fannie Starts New Loan File Requests in June

Fannie Mae will be sending out first loan file requests in June under its new data review procedures for loans originated after Dec. 31.

Under the three-year representation and warranty policy, Fannie will be reviewing all the loan data, which could result in loan file requests four to six months after delivery, according to Beth Millstein, Fannie’s director of customer engagement.

“We want to validate eligibility and we want to provide robust feedback to the lenders,” Millstein said at an American Bankers Association conference in New Orleans.

Fannie wants to clean up the data and most requests will result in just a data correction. “We don’t expect it will result in additional repurchases,” she said.

But she warned that every lender will see an increase in file requests—even lenders that have never received one in the past.

Lenders will be asked to correct the data or Fannie will request the loan file.

Once a lender receives a request, they have 30 days to respond. It used to be 45 days.

Failure to submit the loan file in 30 days will “result in an automatic repurchase request. And it will be very hard to unwind that,” Millstein said.