Big Sellers Bore Brunt of G-Fee Hikes

Last year Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac raised guarantee fees on most of their seller/servicers —but their largest customers took the biggest hit.

“As the enterprises renegotiated expiring contracts in 2011, they increased on-going fees more for large-volume lenders,” the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said in a new report.

The FHFA study on single-family g-fees shows the fees paid by the five largest lenders averaged 26 basis points by yearend 2011, up five basis points from the first quarter. G-fees paid by the smallest lenders were unchanged at 33 bps by yearend.

The GSE regulator released the report last Friday when it directed the two agencies to raise their g-fees by 10 basis points on average and to make the guarantee fees “more uniform” between large and small lenders. The secondary market agencies have a history of charging small lenders higher fees than larger lenders.

On average, guarantee fees increased 2 basis points from 2010 to 28 in 2011.

This increase included adjustments for risks based on the loan product and borrower’s credit score.

“Guarantee fees increased on standard 30-year fixed mortgages and were nearly unchanged for standard 15-year fixed rate mortgages and adjustable rate mortgages,” the report said (Standard loans exclude Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) refinancings.)

The g-fee on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 28 basis points in 2011, up 3 basis points from the year prior.

The GSEs also made modest increases in their g-fees for most credit score categories but not on borrowers with credit scores of less than 660.

The FHFA report indicates that loans for borrowers with credit scores below 660 were profitable in 2011 for the first time in five years. The average g-fee for those borrowers is 50 basis points.

Just 2% of GSE loan volume in 2011 involved borrowers with credit scores of less than 660.