ACUMA Inside Track Webinar - Becoming a Fannie Mae Lender

Fannie Mae, first developed in 1938 to help ensure a reliable and affordable supply of mortgage funds throughout the country, is one of the foremost supporters of the home lending industry and supporter of organizations that seek to put consumers – including credit union members – in their own homes. The new year will bring a new emphasis on real estate ownership, and credit unions that become Fannie Mae lenders will have one more very effective tool to help more members more easily enter the world of homeownership. Learning how to maximize those steps is the purpose of this edition of the ACUMA Inside Track webinar series.

As a government-supported enterprise, there are distinct criteria that lenders must meet to participate in the Fannie Mae program, including the following:

• Demonstrate that the senior management team has significant experience in origination, underwriting, and servicing mortgage loans that comply with Fannie Mae’s underwriting requirements and risk tolerance and contribute to the strategic objectives and mission of Fannie Mae.
• Be willing and able to share and retain a meaningful percentage of the risk of loss and service all mortgage loans that lenders sell to Fannie Mae through the life of the loan.
• Have and retain highly competent and experienced staff, including a Chief Underwriter approved by Fannie Mae that is responsible for all underwriting decisions.
• Be able to market Fannie Mae mortgage-backed securities to capital markets investors.
• Pay Fannie Mae’s third-party costs and expenses for due diligence.
• Enter into the GSE’s Selling and Servicing Agreement.
• Satisfy any additional eligibility criteria Fannie Mae imposes. Such additional criteria may apply to individual lenders, all lenders that are seeking approval to sell and/or service certain types of mortgages, all lenders that share certain characteristics, or all lenders.

Those are just some of the required criteria. Understanding what is expected of the lender to sell mortgage loans to the GSE will help credit unions and other lenders strengthen their mortgage loan programs and enable consumers to participate in the inaugural steps of creating personal financial security and the wealth-building that homeownership provides.

How will this methodology work in the new year and under a new presidential administration? Tune into this episode of the ACUMA Inside Track series to find out!