Freddie Cautions that Some Lenders Cannot Meet Buyback Demands

It's no secret that the GSEs have been demanding billions of dollars in loan buybacks over the past year, but now Freddie Mac is warning that some of its seller/servicers may not meet their repurchase obligations. "Some of our seller/servicers failed to perform their repurchase obligations due to lack of financial capacity, while many of our larger seller/servicers have not fully performed their repurchase obligations," the GSE says in a public filing. As of March 31, Freddie had $4.8 billion in outstanding buyback requests pending. Roughly 34% of those requests were outstanding more than 90 days. The secondary market agency warned that its credit losses may increase if customers do not fulfill their buyback obligations. Freddie executives also are concerned that collection efforts could "negatively impact" their relationships with seller/servicers who have the financial capacity to perform buybacks but chafe at such requests for one reason or another. In the first quarter, seller/servicers reimbursed Freddie $1.3 billion for breaches of representations and warranties, compared to $789 million in the same period in 2009. Fannie Mae reported $1.8 billion of buybacks in the first quarter, compared to $1.1 billion a year ago. Fannie expects its buyback requests will remain high for the rest of this year.