GSEs

Rick Thornberry is looking to the lessons from the Great Recession and applying them to current conditions.

The history of riskier lending over the last half century can offer lessons for today's market.

Many originators stopped making riskier products, including jumbo loans and low credit score offerings, during April.

The government-sponsored enterprises have set new temporary limits on mortgage sales while extending processing flexibilities related to COVID-19.

The other parts of the Day 1 Certainty program regarding income and asset verifications remain in effect.

Some benefits are materializing from Fannie Mae's pledge to limit servicers' exposure to principal-and-interest advances the way Freddie Mac does, but counterparties of both GSEs remain exposed to other concerns.

Guild Mortgage's presence in Washington state, the epicenter of the first U.S. outbreak, gave it an early glimpse of the obstacles ahead.

With unemployment mounting, new mortgage forbearance requests could sharply increase in early May when payments are due.

Lenders implemented stricter underwriting across all loan types in the first quarter as the pandemic upended the economy, the Federal Reserve said in its survey of loan officers.

Fannie Mae's profitability suffered but it managed to stabilize the mortgage market in the first quarter even with the coronavirus disrupting, among other things, certain credit-risk transfer vehicles it has used.

The Home Loan bank will make zero-interest loans, match charitable donations that members make to nonprofits and small businesses, and provide additional funding for economic development grants.

While Freddie Mac stabilized liquidity in mortgage markets, coronavirus-related credit losses drove the GSE's income down in the first quarter of 2020.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's chief operating officer will take a similar position at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, fulfilling one of the multiple recruiting goals the FHFA announced in January.

The government-sponsored enterprises are focusing on how loans can be repaid after the federal forbearance period ends, and projections for loan modification volumes suggest the larger industry should, too.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now able to buy loans in forbearance to alleviate pressure on the sector, but the fees charged by the mortgage giants to assume more risk could turn away some originators.

The FHFA's director said the announcement is meant to “combat ongoing misinformation” about efforts to let homeowners skip mortgage payments due to the coronavirus pandemic.

FHFA Director Mark Calabria stated that he was directing the GSEs to "add liquidity" to the markets, but the actions of the FHFA say precisely the opposite.

Correspondent loan sellers are hoping the new GSE purchases will help to open a market frozen by coronavirus-related risk — but the prices offered so far aren't too promising.

The policy move will allow small institutions participating in the Paycheck Protection Program to pledge business loans as collateral to obtain advances.

Treating COVID-19 forbearances as a natural disaster will likely mean the MIs will not need to hold as much capital.