Representatives from government housing agencies said they are making progress in breaking down barriers that discourage mortgage lenders and servicers from working with them, according to an article from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Commissioner Brian Montgomery, when speaking at the MBA National Secondary Market Conference & Expo, said the FHA is at an “important crossroads.”
“It’s clear that our regulatory compliance standards discourage depository institutions from participating as FHA partners,” Montgomery told conference attendees. “I strongly believe this discouragement has a huge impact on FHA products.”
Montgomery said he is committed to evaluating policies to encourage more FHA lending, citing efforts to increase transparency and ease regulatory burdens.
“Our ultimate goal is to be fair,” Montgomery said. “We believe these adjustments will improve our risk management and better evaluate risk at the margin, so lenders can participate with more confidence.”
Ginnie Mae Acting President Maren Kasper said the agency is on track for its Ginnie Mae 2020 modernization initiative, designed to employ technology to make participating easier and to better mine data.
“It better benefits us and our partners in making our processes more efficient,” Kasper said. “We’ve all been working together to ensure we are ready to accept digital mortgages.”
The government panel is another component of Ginnie Mae for 2020 that is in the “stress-testing” mode.
“This is a difficult policy to implement and a difficult model to build,” Kasper said, “but it’s important that we know how our issuers can withstand downward scenarios. We continue to refine this policy so that we can effectively manage risk, without being too disruptive to our issuers.”
Gisele Roget, deputy assistant secretary of single-family housing with FHA, said despite funding allocation issues the agency is taking steps toward modernizing its outdated technology.