The Federal Housing Finance Agency as early as Thursday could release its annual report on guarantee fees charged to mortgage bankers by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to industry officials.
The last report, released in July 2010, covered 'g-fees' charged in 2008 and 2009. (The new study presumably will cover 2010.)
In the previous study, FHFA found that the average g-fee charged by Fannie and Freddie fell to 22 basis points in 2009 from 25bps in 2008. The measure, however, reflected mortgages bought by the government controlled companies through “flow” deals.
FHFA noted that g-fees actually fell because of a significant improvement in the “credit profile” of mortgages the two were buying.
However, FHFA acting director Ed DeMarco this week said Fannie and Freddie will hike their guarantee fees some time next year to better reflect “that which would be anticipated in a private competitive market.”
DeMarco also hinted that the two may soon stop providing volume discounts to their largest seller/servicers. In 2009 the 10 largest sellers to Fannie and Freddie accounted for about 74% of their total residential purchases in the secondary market.
