An Interim CEO for Freddie; One Year of Forbearance. Meaning? - IMFnews

Share Register Advertise March 16, 2021 Freddie Names Interim CEO: Mark Grier dhollier@imfpubs.com Freddie Mac has tapped Mark Grier to serve as the enterprise’s interim CEO, according to a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Meanwhile the board continues its search for a permanent replacement for David Brickman, who officially departed the mortgage giant as chief executive officer on Jan. 8. Grier knows what he’s getting into. He’s currently a board member, and has served on the nominating and governance committee since February 2020. He also brings more than four decades of finance, risk, and capital markets experience to the job. Until he retired in 2019, he served as vice chair of the board of Prudential Financial. In 2001, he led the financial behemoth’s $3 billion initial public offering, one of the largest IPOs ever at that time. Sara Mathew, Freddie’s non-executive board chair, described him as “ideally suited to lead the company as we continue a thorough search for a permanent CEO.” As interim CEO, of course, Grier also becomes a prospect for the permanent position. There was no mention of this in Freddie’s SEC filing, but it’s worth pointing out that Hugh Frater served on Fannie Mae’s board before being tapped as interim, and then permanent, CEO. Beware of Mortgagors Approaching the One-Year Mark on Forbearance Plans? pmuolo@imfpubs.com First, the good news: The number of outstanding residential loans in forbearance fell 6 basis points to 5.14% as of March 7, according to newly released figures from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The bad news: Many homeowners are approaching the 12-month mark on their relief plans. Specifically, the trade group noted 14.1% of loans in forbearance are in an initial stage while 83.3% are in what MBA calls “extension.” The balance of mortgagors are in what’s called reentry. This past Friday, Black Knight in its relief tally noted that while March month-end expirations are down 1.1 million units from a year ago, “there are still more than 800,000 plans currently listed with March expirations.” Black Knight says that, overall, 2.6 million homeowners are in some form of COVID-related forbearance. “This represents a daunting task for servicers as they review upcoming expirations for removal or extension based on recently revised” guidelines from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Ginnie Mae MBS Issuance Finally Takes a Breather jbancroft@imfpubs.com Ginnie Mae issuers produced $71.24 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities in February, a 7.4% decline from the previous month, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis. Securitization of government-insured loans has been on a tear over the past year, edging over the $60 billion level in April and topping $70 billion in August. January 2021 holds the record for monthly Ginnie MBS production. February has the fewest number of business days in the year and typically represents the low spot in seasonal housing activity. And the flow of purchase-money loans into Ginnie pools saw the sharpest decline, 16.6%, on a monthly basis. The purchase market in early 2021 remains much stronger than in the first two months of last year, with volume up 16.9%. VA purchase-loan activity was up 18.1% on a year-to-date basis. Ginnie refinance volume declined 3.0% in February, while still accounting for 58.1% of issuance for the month. For more details and exclusive rankings, see the new edition of Inside FHA/VA Lending, now available online. FHFA’s Proposed Liquidity Rule May Require Some Work dhollier@imfpubs.com The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s proposed new liquidity and funding requirements for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae aren’t necessarily controversial, but need some changes. At least, that's how industry stakeholders see it. In its draft, the FHFA said the GSEs would have to meet short-term liquidity standards based on their highest net cash outflows over a 30-day period. The two entities also are required to meet intermediate liquidity requirements based on cash outflows over the previous year and long-term liquidity and funding levels based on the ratio of their unsecured debt to less-liquid assets. The comment period closed just last week. The FHFA based its 30-day liquidity requirement on the coverage ratio used by bank regulators. However, Freddie pointed out the agency uses a different definition of high-quality liquid asset, or HQLA, than banks do. (FHFA excludes all agency MBS from this category.) For more details, see Inside MBS & ABS, now available online. Short Takes: Fairway Speaks / What Rocket Said / A Tally from UWM / Share Prices? / Citi’s New Mortgage Chief pmuolo@imfpubs.com Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. finally decided to comment on the turf war ignited two weeks ago when United Wholesale Mortgage gave its brokers an ultimatum: If you table-fund with Rocket Pro TPO or Fairway, you can’t use UWM. In a statement, company CEO Steve Jacobson said, “We are a mortgage banker now because we grew — nothing more or less. We appreciate the extra attention the last two weeks have provided and thankful for the extra opportunities we’ve been given. We’ve always believed in doing what is best for the consumer, and that will never change. For that reason, we will always support a broker’s decision to work with any lender they choose, and we will continue to work every day to earn the trust and respect of all our origination partners. At the end of the day, we are all working for the borrower”… In case you missed it, Rocket last week said the dustup ignited by UWM CEO Mat Ishbia caused its broker signups to spike… And not to be outdone, UWM issued a statement Tuesday morning, saying “more than 10,000 broker shops in America are ‘All-In,’ meaning they will no longer work with Rocket Mortgage and Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation”… What should the industry make of this whole affair? Hard to say, but we know the Mortgage Bankers Association, in a rare taking-sides announcement, made it clear it was none-too-happy with UWM’s us-or-them attitude… Not that it means anything, but Rocket’s share price was up slightly today, while UWM’s was down. Fairway is privately held. MORTGAGE PEOPLE: Citibank named Brad Wayman president of its U.S. mortgage operations. He’s been serving on an interim basis since December. Wayman joined the nation’s 23rd largest home lender in 2003. His resume includes stints at the White House and Department of Justice. Participate in Inside Mortgage Finance’s Salary Survey Inside Mortgage Finance, the mortgage market’s leading source of detailed industry data, invites you to participate in our annual research effort, Salary Survey 2021. Please take just a few minutes to share – completely confidentially — some details about your job function, salary, benefits and career satisfaction. In return, you’ll receive a brief report on compensation levels in the industry after the survey closes. The survey won’t be open for much longer, so click here to take it today … and share the link with your colleagues!​ To ensure delivery to your inbox, add news@imfpubs.com to your address book or safe sender list. Home | Update Your Account | Mortgage Data | User Agreement | Unsubscribe © Copyright 2020 Inside Mortgage Finance Publications 7910 Woodmont Ave., Suite 1000, Bethesda, MD 20814 Tel: (301) 951-1240; Fax: (301) 656-1709

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