Fannie Mae (FNMA)

[navycmdr]

What We’re Hearing: Another GSE MI Pilot on the Way

Arch Gets High Marks for Looking to the Future

Pam Patenaude for HUD Secretary ?

The Mortgage Profit Blues

The Candidates to Succeed Dave Stevens are…

Friday March 16, 2018 ... By Paul Muolo ... [e-mail]



Fannie Mae is definitely working on a single-premium mortgage insurance pilot that’s somewhat similar to the one Freddie Mac rolled out this week, industry officials confirmed to IMFnews. U.S. Mortgage Insurers, the MI trade group that tried to derail the IMAGIN (integrated mortgage insurance) pilot, isn’t likely to be thrilled with this one either. For more on the story, see the new edition of Inside The GSEs…

As Inside Mortgage Finance noted in its reporting, Arch Capital Group – parent of the nation’s largest MI – is serving as administrator on the Freddie pilot. Arch is the lone MI that is not a member of USMI. If Arch were a member, would USMI have complained so vociferously to the Federal Housing Finance Agency back in June of 2017? Hard to say...

One veteran MI official, who has nothing to do with Arch, gave the company high marks for being involved in the pilot. This source, requesting his name not be published, suggested that Arch is looking to the future, trying out new risk-coverage structures that might be part of a reformed secondary market, one where Fannie and Freddie are still alive, but operating in a world where risk transfers dominate everything the GSEs do…

Is Ben Carson operating on borrowed time at the Department of Housing and Urban Development? We have no information that suggests the retired neurosurgeon is on his way out the door, but several trade group officials and Washington-based consultants suggest it’s just a matter of time before he departs…

Already, there’s speculation that Trump would tap Deputy HUD secretary Pam Patenaude to replace Carson, making her the second woman to head this cabinet-level agency. Patenaude has a strong resume. She previously served as HUD’s assistant secretary for community planning and development and played a key role in the agency’s response and cleanup efforts necessitated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita…

Mortgage lenders are feeling the profit blues, according to a new sentiment report from Fannie Mae. According to the GSE, originators “reported a net negative profit margin outlook for the sixth consecutive quarter, matching the all-time low reading from Q4 2016 …Those who expect a lower profit margin continued to point to ‘competition from other lenders’ as the primary reason…”

We know of at least three industry officials who’ve been approached by Spencer Stuart, the DC-based headhunting firm that’s working for the Mortgage Bankers Association. One is a former Fannie executive. The assignment: to find the next president and CEO of MBA...