Underwriting

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 Federal Reserve's $2.3 trillion loan stimulus includes plans for outstanding commercial mortgage-backed securities and newly issued collateralized loan obligations.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency authorized the government-sponsored enterprises to lend additional support to the mortgage-backed securities market and temporarily allow some flexibility in lending requirements to address coronavirus-related concerns.

Additional mortgage-backed securities purchases by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York will address private investor skittishness about the asset class, but it will not necessarily lower rates.

With small businesses feeling the financial scourge of the coronavirus, bridge loans could be the direction they turn to keep things afloat.

Fannie Mae completed its first two Credit Insurance Risk Transfer transactions of 2020, shifting $1 billion of single-family loan credit risk to insurers and reinsurers.

Now that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says it will scrap an unpopular standard for so-called qualified mortgages, the big question is what will take its place.

Director Kathy Kraninger has told lawmakers that the agency will delay the expiration of the so-called QM patch, now set for January 2021.

The percentage of recent mortgage borrowers with subprime credit scores still resides in the single digits, but nearly doubled what is was in 2013, according to TransUnion.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s exemption from the Qualified Mortgage rule is on borrowed time, but a House bill would allow lenders to use the mortgage giants’ guidelines for documenting borrower income.