Risk management

Radian and Essent will make their "black box" mortgage insurance pricing methods live on Jan. 21, leaving MGIC as the only company yet to announce its adoption.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has proposed barring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from using credit scores developed by VantageScore over concern about conflicts of interest with the joint venture of Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charged lenders slightly lower guarantee fees in 2017 for mortgages with riskier characteristics, according to a Federal Housing Finance Agency report.

Wire fraud is considered a consumer and title agent issue, but the millions of dollars it's diverting from home purchase transactions make it an issue mortgage lenders need to address, too.

Private mortgage insurers are moving away from traditional rate cards in favor of more granular risk-based pricing to make their products more competitive and efficient for lenders.

Fannie Mae completed 10 traditional and front-end credit risk insurance transactions during 2018, sharing $2.6 billion of risk, including $192 million in its final deal of the year.

Beazer Homes USA is working to encourage competition among its approved lenders in order to help control upward pressure on home prices and lending rates that could slow sales.

The unique approach Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are each taking with their credit-risk transfer products is quickly becoming a key point of differentiation that's rekindling competition between the government-sponsored enterprises.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac transferred a substantial amount of credit risk to the private sector through both single-family and multifamily market transactions in the first half of the year, with activity expected to rise in 2019, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

When the mortgage giant will be released from government control is anyone's guess, but the company's third-quarter report shows signs of an easier transition.