Tag Archives: FHFA

According to FHFA, nearly 41,000 out of those 65,900 foreclosure prevention actions (62 percent) completed in Q4 were permanent loan modifications; 33 percent of borrowers who received loan mods had their payments reduced by 30 percent or more, according to FHFA.

This will be the second time in as many months that Ocwen has announced an MSR sale on an Agency portfolio of residential loans to Dallas, Texas-based Nationstar. In February, Ocwen announced its intention to sell the MSR on a portfolio of about 81,000 performing residential loans owned by Freddie Mac with a UPB of about $9.8 billion to Nationstar.

Freddie Mac's conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), is requiring Freddie Mac and its fellow GSE, Fannie Mae, to reduce the number of non-performing residential loans in their portfolios. This will be Freddie Mac's third sale of nonperforming loans since last summer. In August, the Enterprise sold a bundle of NPLs totaling $596 million and one in February that covered $392 in UPB. Sales of NPLs by the two Enterprises generally include loans that are seriously delinquent, which are those that are 90 days or more past due.

Counsel's Corner is an ongoing series in which DS News talks with default servicing attorneys around the country about the most pressing issues facing the default servicing industry. This installment features Stacey Slaughter, partner with Robins Kaplan.

The STACR offering announced Thursday is the GSE’s second this year and 11th overall. Freddie Mac began the STACR program in the second half of 2013 as part of the Enterprise’s goal of reducing risk to taxpayers by increasing private capital’s role in the mortgage market.

In a white paper released Wednesday titled "The Continued Profitability of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is Not Assured," the Office of Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) warned that the profitability of the two GSEs may not continue due to their having to rely on core earnings for profits in the future.

According to Ocwen, the portfolio consists of approximately 55,000 performing loans owned by Freddie Mac. The transaction is subject to approval by Freddie Mac and its conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), as well as other customary conditions. Ocwen reported that it expects the transaction to close by April 30, 2015, and expects the loan servicing to transfer in May 2015.

Nomura, which is headquartered in Japan and is one of the world's biggest banks, is the first financial institution to go to trial out of the 18 lenders FHFA sued in 2011 to recoup U.S. taxpayer costs following the government's $188 billion bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2008, after which the government seized control of both Enterprises.

According to the report, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exceeded their $90 billion risk transfer goal. During 2014, the two Enterprises executed credit risk transfers on single-family mortgages with unpaid balance transfers of over $340 billion. As part of the FHFA requirement both enterprises continued to reduce their mortgage portfolios. As of December 2014, Freddie Mac’s portfolio stood at $408 billion and Fannie Mae’s stood at $413 billion, for a combined reduction of $131 billion. Both numbers were significantly under the $470 billion cap required by the Senior Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements.

Recent actions by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) indicate that the Agency is placing an increased emphasis on the clearing out of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's seriously delinquent loan portfolios and steering more borrowers toward foreclosure prevention and loss mitigation actions, using foreclosure only as an absolute last resort.